Working For the Enemy
by ninajunkie
Summary: School is out for the summer and Hermione needs something to occupy her time while she's not teaching at Hogwarts. Her and Ginny search for the perfect way to keep her busy. Then she finds out who her boss is. It gets worse when she's attached... again.
1. In Desperate Need

**Chapter 1  
****In Desperate Need**

This had been what everyone was waiting for. The sun was finally out with no signs of venomous clouds heading their way. It had been either rainy or cloudy for the past week and a half and there was finally some indication that the sun existed. School had finally been released three days earlier so children were all around playing with their friends. Even adults seemed to be taking that Monday afternoon off. Plenty of people could be seen exercising around the park by means of either walking, running, or playing tag.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, all except one person. A petite girl of about 1.6 meters in height with chocolate brown curls was sitting on one of the park benches with a worn-out look upon her face. Held up in between her hands was a newspaper with the words 'The Daily Prophet' strewn across the front page. Her eyes were darting from left to right and back to the left again while searching for something in particular. A loud groan was forced from her lips as she hesitantly gave up her search and placed the paper beside her on the bench.

She lifted her arm up and impatiently looked at her watch. "She's late," she mumbled really low, but not in an aggravated tone. At that very moment, a distinct 'pop' was heard from behind where she was sitting.

"Sorry I'm terribly late. Got caught up with business and the like," said a very bouncy red head with much enthusiasm. She took a seat right beside the brunette, with legs crossed under her bottom, and looked at her intently as if trying to pry information out of her tight grip.

"If only you mean 'business' by getting entangled with a certain Mr. Finnigan, then I'll believe you." A slight smile crept its way onto her face as the other's cheeks began blushing.

"Hermione, you know me too well. But what is this important thing that you so desperately need my wonderful help for?"

"You know I always want your cordial help, Ginny. Right know calls for desperate measures and we need to focus one-hundred percent. This is an emergency and I'm desperate!"

"Alright, the first step is to calm down. I'm sure it can't be that terrible, whatever it is that you need my help with. By the way, are you going to explain what it is that you are going through?"

"I need a job!" She yelled in frustration.

"But Hermione, you already have a job. Did someone cast a memory charm on you, or do I need to remind you once again that you are the youngest witch to ever teach at Hogwarts? This is your summer break, so use it as time to relax!"

"I know Ginny, but I need something to do with my time while everyone else is working during the day. I just can't stay cooped up in my flat with nothing to do. Plus, I could use some extra galleons to put away for a rainy day."

"Okay, but will you still be willing to hang out with all of your friends? We missed you during the school year, because you would always grade assignments and exams during the nights."

"Of course. This is what I want, so do you think you could join me in a little job hunt?" Her eyes were pleading and her lips were turning into her famous puppy dog pout that no one could resist.

"You have no need to stick out your bottom lip like that at me, Hermione Granger. You know I'll help you. So where have you looked so far?"

"I just went through the classifieds in The Daily Prophet, but had no such luck. I certainly don't want to be a referee for a kid's league of Quidditch. Nor do I want to want to check in wizards' wands at the Ministry. I need something that won't bore me to death or get me killed with a flying Bludger."

"Well… we just need to find something that sparks your interest and will keep you awake… Hmm. Have you tried Flourish and Blott's?"

"They're overstaffed," she replied with a huff.

"What about a muggle book store. You could always just exchange the money through Gringott's."

"Thought about that. I'd prefer to just be around my kind of people. No offense to my parents or my heritage or anything. I just think of myself as a witch and would like to be around other magical folk."

"Okay. Have you checked the posting board in Diagon Alley? I'm sure there are plenty of flyers there."

"Actually, I haven't checked there. Are you free right now Ginny?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be sitting on the park bench in beautiful Wizarding London, talking to you right now."

With the blink of an eye, both girls apparated into The Leaky Cauldron. Many management officials of different stores in Diagon Alley were complaining that people who apparated straight into the alley, ended up toppling over others. So now the Ministry had declared a new decree stating that all persons willing to travel to the shopping area either had to floo to the appropriate fireplace, or apparate into The Leaky Cauldron. Tom, the manager, didn't mind because he loved seeing new faces at his bar and inn.

When they passed right in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, they couldn't resist stopping in for a taste of some of their delicious treats. It was just that irresistible. After they finished eating their ice cream, they walked across the street to the bulletin right next to the wizarding bank. There were so many notes attached, that they had no idea where to begin. A bright pink flyer caught Ginny's eye and she began to read it to Hermione.

She declined the offer to test out new beauty supplies. Both of them laughed as they thought it would have been a better job for their friend Lavender, but Hermione was not someone to indulge in beauty things or appearances. Then their eyes flew to a bright yellow piece of parchment. It asked for those interested in house keeping, to report to a new inn at Hogsmeade. Neither of them thought of that as interesting. It would just bother Hermione's allergies to dust even more.

They went through rows and columns of people looking for others to fulfill their needs, but still nothing that would work for the desperate brunette. They were about to give up when Hermione noticed a full sized parchment pinned at the bottom right hand corner of the posting board. It was so plain, written with amazing penmanship in a dazzling green ink. Even as simple as it was, it seemed to be calling out to her.

"It's for a nanny for a five year old girl," Ginny said when she noticed the posting Hermione was looking intently at. "I never took you as the type of person to like kids." She gave her friend a questioning look.

"Oh no, I love children. I've always wanted a younger brother of sister, but my parents were never able to have any others. So sometimes during the summer I would baby-sit for a few of my neighbors for some extra spending money when we would get trips to Hogsmeade."

"You never told me that…"

"Well I didn't think it was a big deal. But I always loved playing with them. It would make me feel younger, and there's always something you can learn from a five year old who has a different perspective of the world."

"…You know… this is perfect for you. I mean, you already have the experience and from the way your face looked when you just told me that amazing story, you loved it. So why not give it a shot?"

Hermione had to admit that her red-haired friend had a point. She did love to be around younger children and it would be an excellent way to spend her extra time during the day. But she had never babysat a wizard or a witch before. In fact, she had never known a magical person under the age of eleven. All of her students were able to control their magic by the time they went into her classrooms. A five year old couldn't control their powers, even if they tried. She admitted to herself that she was scared. She had no idea how to take care of a wizarding child.

"I know what you're thinking Hermione. But it's not that bad. I grew up around a lot of kids from this world, and it's not difficult in the least. Sure, they may be able to throw a pretty mean tantrum, but what kind of kid can't? Plus, a five year old who knows she has magic flowing through her veins, probably already has some mechanism to control her outbursts."

"I don't know… I'm still a bit skeptical about this." She was biting her bottom lip like she always did when she was nervous about something. Hermione really wanted this job, but still wasn't sure.

"Gosh Hermione. How many job postings are we going to have to go through before you find one that you won't have doubts over? This is perfect for you, and if you don't take that flyer home with you, I'm going to scream right now!"

She knew how terrible her friend's shrieks were, so she instantly took the posting off the board and apparated to her flat. A few seconds later, Ginny popped in also.

"Good, I knew you couldn't resist!" Ginny said with a smile on her face saying that she was proud of her strategies.

"Resist? Ha. I only took it because your shouts are killer. They could make a dragon crawl back into its cave."

"Thanks, I guess… So are you going to owl the person?"

"That's the thing: there is no address or name of the person to contact. All there is on here is a telephone number. I thought wizards didn't use muggle devices."

"Well, some can. Dad now has one in his office because he constantly needs to keep in contact with muggles. Especially since he got promoted last year."

"Oh yeah, I forgot Dad had a 'fellytone' at the Ministry," she replied with a laugh. Hermione spent lots of time with the red-headed family, and soon enough got accustomed to calling the heads of the house 'Mum' and 'Dad'. They all treated her like part of the family, just as Harry was too, so she felt it was a nice title for them. Harry still felt the need to call them 'Mrs. Weasley' and 'Mr. Weasley' even after they protested for him not to.

"So are you going to call?"

"Well, the parents are probably at work right now, so I'll just call later on tonight."

"Hermione! You are going to call this instant, and I will not leave you alone until you do!"

"Fine," Hermione said with a shocked voice. She picked up her own phone that she used to keep in contact with her parents, and began dialing the numbers. "This better be worth it…"

* * *

I had a break today in between two of my classes, and I didn't feel like leaving campus, so with my extra time today this story popped out. I only have this chapter written so far, but I will get to work on more of it. Don't worry, I'm still continuing with Dear Diary and my other stories. I just liked this little thing that came out. So please R&R. Tell me what you think so far. 


	2. Arrangements

Well, here's the second chapter to this story. I don't know how often I will be updating this because I have other stories I've been working on for a long time now that I want to get up. But I promise I won't abandon this one! **R&R**

**Chapter 2  
****Arrangements**

Draco Malfoy was absolutely frustrated. It was a Monday and he was forced to stay at home instead of attending to the piles of papers that needed to be sorted out at work. He had just fired the last babysitter on the past Friday after he returned home because she had taken his daughter out to the zoo without letting him know. Didn't he have the right to know where his daughter was every second of the day? Just because he was always preoccupied with work didn't mean that he neglected his own child. Draco cared very much for her.

In fact, he thought he had a pretty decent life and he was in some sense, happy. He was now one of the two owners of the Daily Prophet and in turn, made more than enough galleons. He was indeed very handsome—he made sure to tell himself that every morning when he looked in the mirror—and had no problem with flaunting it. His daughter was the light of his life and he would do anything to make sure she was happy herself; even if that meant going down the street on a tiring day to buy her an ice cream cone. She was the only one who could ever boss him around; most people thought he was spoiling her too much. But he didn't care.

But the only downside in his life… was that his daughter had no mother. Of course she had a mother, it takes two to make a baby and he was the father. But the sad thing is, her mother left soon after she had been born and they hadn't heard from her since. And Draco couldn't deny the obvious, they weren't in love. He would never admit it, but Alyson was an accident because they had forgotten about the contraceptive spell afterwards. But Draco loved his little Aly more than anything.

It was almost five o'clock in the evening, meaning that the shift him and his business partner would work till, was almost over. Alyson had finally fallen asleep for an afternoon nap after a whole day of playing pretty princess in her miniature castle.

Draco picked up a quill and some parchment off his desk in the study of his house and wrote a quick note.

_Blaise, get your bloody arse over here the second you leave the office. I'm in dire need of help!  
- Draco_

He tied it to the ankle of his Eagle owl, and sent him off through an open window. About ten minutes later, his best friend popped into the house. Blaise gave his blonde-haired friend a knowing look and a cunning smirk.

"Couldn't stand sitting at home with nothing to do, huh?" he asked as he took a seat in the armchair across from Draco.

"I just need to find another nanny. Maybe I should find one that's decent enough to keep around, one who will actually respect my wishes, and one who actually wants to work with a kid. If only I can find a nanny with a combination of all three of those people," he replied while rubbing his temples.

"How do you expect to find one in such a short amount of time, when the only place you have put any notice up, is on the board by Gringotts? I told you to put one up in the classified section in our paper."

"Ha, that's a laugh; me, Draco Malfoy, putting up an ad in his own newspaper, just to embarrass himself."

"Then you should have put one in another paper."

"Any other paper, Blaise, is our competition and I will not stoop down that low to pay them when we're trying to out-beat them."

"Whatever, man. Just don't go crying to Pansy when you're desperate for a nanny. You know she loves Aly like her own daughter, but she would never leave work at the salon."

"At least you married her, not me!"

Just then, the phone rang, stopping their pointless conversation.

"If that's another blasted telemarketer, I'm going to _Avada Kedavra_ him through the phone!"

The phone kept on ringing…

"Draco, man. Let me answer it then, okay?" Blaise said. He went straight to the pestering ringing phone, and picked it up off the hook. "Hello?" he answered.

"Sorry, if I'm bothering you…" the girl on the other started to say, "but I'm calling in regard to the notice posted up in Diagon Alley."

"Oh for the nanny position!" Blaise said excitedly. Draco perked up in his seat and turned to look surprised at his Italian friend, wondering if this next one would be worth it…

"Yes, um…" Blaise could tell she was absolutely nervous. "What are the specifics for the job?"

"Actually, I'm not the child's father, but I'm a friend and a business partner."

"Oh."

"Either way, we go to work at nine in the morning, until five in the afternoon. But the hours for the job require you to show up at precisely eight-thirty and then you're free to leave whenever he gets back."

"I can do that!" the girl replied eagerly. "Is it just Mondays through Fridays then?"

"Yes. And can you cook?"

"Oh, yes. With magic and without, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Good! And he requires you to owl him every time you plan to leave the house with little Alyson as to receive permission."

"Is that her name? That's adorable. And it's not a problem at all, I'll make sure to owl every time."

"I'm liking you already! Just one more thing to ask you… do. you. _like_. children?" he asked slowly so she could get his point. He didn't want to go through hell once more with another mindless idiot who didn't like children but was desperate for money.

"I love children! I'd have one myself, but… well you know the story…"

"Well, that's great. You're perfect for the job. So report here tomorrow right at eight-thirty. You know the community at the very end of wizarding London?"

"Which one?"

"Watering Gardens," he replied and she said she did. "Well, when you turn into the entrance, keep going down that street until you can't go straight anymore, and then turn left until you reach the very end of the road. It's the house at the very end of the cul-de-sac, the Mediterranean blue one. Since you've never been here before, you will have to find another way to get here other than floo powder because the house is disconnected from the Floo Network due to personal reasons. After the first time, you can apparate to the front door. Sound good to you?"

"That sounds great. I can't wait!"

"Good, well when you get here there will be a list of everything else you need to know. So, I'll be seeing you tomorrow? You're not going to bail?"

"No, I would never do that. But I will see you tomorrow! —click—"

Blaise put the phone back on the hook and went to go sit down in the armchair he had been seated at previously, all while Draco gave him a questioning glare. The blue-eyed man just kept on staring, expecting Blaise to say something, but he just kept quiet.

"So…" Draco finally said.

"So…what?" Blaise retorted.

"Are you ever going to tell me anything about the phone call that you just answered? Or perhaps even tell me why you hired a nanny for my daughter without my permission or without even consulting me first? I mean this is _my _daughter we're talking about…"

"Relax, Draco. She's perfect. She loves kids, she can cook, and she said that she will contact you about everything. And I think it's safe to assume she's single," he said while wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"Gross, Zabini! For all you know she could be forty years old and there's no chance in hell I would waste my godliness on someone like that. Plus, I've very capable of getting a girl without having to resort to hitting on my own daughter's babysitter!"

"Alright, don't be so defensive about it. Just be prepared to go to work tomorrow."

"Whatever. Did you even manage to get the lady's name?"

"Shit!" he yelled while smacking his forehead.

A few seconds later a little girl came wandering out of the hallway with a nightgown on and her hair all messy. She was carrying a baby brown teddy bear in her left hand and she was rubbing her eyes with her right hand. Without saying anything, she proceeded to climb on top of Blaise's lap.

"Hi, Uncle Bwaise…" she said and gave him the biggest hug she could muster.

**XXX**

Hermione was overjoyed. On her first call, she managed to get a job, and even one that she would enjoy. Her insides were squirming from being nervous about showing up the next day at her boss's house.

"I'm guessing you got the job?" Ginny asked with wide eyes.

"Of course I got the job!" she replied with a huge smile plastered on her face.

The red-head jumped up and ran to Hermione, and gave her a hug out of shear excitement. "Oh Merlin, this is great! All those long hours of searching finally paid off."

"Ginny, you only helped for about an hour!"

"I know, but you must have looked longer than that! Anyway, what's the guy's name you were talking to?"

"Actually, that was just a family friend. Don't know his name, and come to think of it, I forgot to ask the other man's name. All I know is that the little girl's name is Alyson."

"So you have a job, but you have no idea who you are working for? That's has got to be a bit on the weird side. Well, do you know anything about the wife?"

"No, they didn't say anything about her, But I'm assuming that she works the same time he does, or even longer because the guy said that he has to go to work at nine and for me to be there by eight-thirty. I don't know. I'll just find out tomorrow morning!" Then she remembered something; the person she had talked to sounded familiar, but she just couldn't place who it was. She started laughing at her silliness.

"What's so funny?"

"I just had a funny feeling like I knew who was talking… I'm just being skeptical, I guess."

"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will work out for the best," Ginny said. They both had no idea what was to come.


	3. Arriving at Work

**A/N** Okay, so I don't know what kind of cars the British drive but please bare with me because I'm not actually from England. Well, here's the next chapter. REVIEW! Please.

**Chapter Three  
Arriving at Work**

Hermione awoke early at seven in the morning to the usual annoying beeping of the alarm clock that was always kept on her side table. She swiftly got out of bed and headed into the bathroom to take a shower to wake herself up. This job is exactly what she wanted to keep herself preoccupied during the summer and she was not about to lose this chance with anything to get in the way.

She hopped out of the shower smelling of chamomile and lavender, and proceeded to brush her hair out to keep the knots from forming. After she dried herself off, she got dressed into a simple pair of jeans and a cotton long-sleeved shirt. She had to admit that the color blue looked decent on her. By the time she was all dressed, it was almost seven-thirty.

After she made sure her bed was made, she grabbed a few textbooks and slipped them into a tote bag to take to the house with her. She took a piece of parchment off of the desk in her living room where she had written the instructions of how to get to the house. Since she still had connections to the muggle world, she was going to be driving to the house in her car.

She locked the front door with a simple spell and then apparated to where she kept her car in the minuscule parking lot that the wizarding community gave for those wizards who drove. Using the remote for the car, she unlocked the doors and hopped into the driver's seat of her silver Honda Civic. After starting the car, she pulled out of the parking spot and continued to drive out of the place.

Once in a while, she would look down at the parchment in her right hand to make sure she was going in the right direction. She had been to "Watering Gardens" before, but since it was an all wizard neighborhood, she had always apparated or used the Floo Network to get there. So with the help of older wizards and witches, she managed to figure out exactly which roads to take to lead her to the right place.

Soon enough, she found the entrance to the neighborhood. There was a stone tower on either side of the entering road, with a small wall protruding from the side with "Watering Gardens" written in the most eccentric letters. On the stone, it looked as if there were stars inserted into it that would sparkle on and off. There were bushes that had been placed in a line on the grass next to the road with flowers that changed from red to purple and then back to red. On the left side of the road, there was a tiny little creek that kept on going into the neighborhood and there was a small bridge made for the street to go over it. In the back of her mind she wondered why she never noticed the body of water in there before.

She kept on driving straight down the main street like she was instructed to do, and then took a left at the end of the road. The second she saw the cul-de-sac, the deep blue colored house came into view and she automatically knew it was the house she was to be working at throughout the summer.

'Dang it!' she thought as she went to park her car on the side of the road. 'I forgot to mention I was only going to be able to baby-sit for the summer.'

After she had her tote hanging on her shoulder and locked the car, she walked slowly to the front door to knock. Butterflies were starting to fill her stomach as she realised she still had no clue who she was going to be working for, and hoping she would do well enough to not be fired on her first day. She took a few steps onto the small front porch, took a deep breath, and pushed the doorbell.

No one had answered the door yet and she felt as though she had been waiting for almost five minutes. Then she heard the tiny sounds of a locking charm being undone, and then the door handle started to turn. Hermione held her breath anxiously waiting for the door to hurry up and open. Finally, it swung open and she found herself looking at a man with dark brown hair and beautiful light brown eyes.

"Zabini?" she asked in a very surprised tone while looking him up and down. She turned her back to him and muttered, "I can't believe this," while rubbing her eyelids.

"Granger? You're the one babysitting?" He was just as shocked as she was.

Hermione turned back around to face him with confusion set in her features. "I didn't know you had a kid…"

He stepped away from the door and went outside, shutting it behind him. "I don't. I'm not the one you're going to be working for."

"So you're the one I talked to on the phone? The friend? No wonder I thought you sounded familiar." She paused a little bit to think about whose kid she could possibly be sitting for. "So, if you don't have a kid, then whose child will I be looking after?"

"Just take one wild guess, Granger," he replied while cocking an eyebrow at her daring her to get it wrong.

"You have got to be shitting me!" Her jaw dropped in disbelief of her dreadful luck.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to take a crap in front of you," Blaise said with mock disgust.

Hermione gave him a deathly glare, telling him to shut up. "You can't seriously expect me to watch Draco's offspring… She's probably just as bad as he is."

"Okay, I know you two have had a terrible past, and neither of you are too happy about this –he doesn't know yet- but he's in desperate need of a trustful nanny for Alyson. He's expecting to go into work today, and I don't want to take that away from him."

"But me; the Mudblood Gryffindor that he tormented for years on end? He'll probably think that I'll contaminate his daughter with my disease infested hands." This time she cocked an eyebrow to him daring him to prove her wrong.

"I know for a fact that you two haven't talked since we all left Hogwarts, but he's not that bad anymore. I mean he does have a muggle telephone for Merlin's sake."

"Okay… but how do you know he'll want me there?"

"I guess we'll just have to go find out," he responded and stuck his arm out for her to take.

She obliged, a little reluctantly, and walked in through the front door when he opened it for her. She was greeted by one of the most beautiful houses she had ever been in. In front of her was a staircase with polished brass spindles with a handle that seemed to be made of the same material. There wasn't a single wall that was the bland color of white; every corner had been splashed with color. Magnificent paintings hung on the wall in the living room to her left with deep-green couches. On the right was the dining room with a table to seat eight people. It was a spectacular house that screamed life and happiness, but there was something wrong about it: it was Malfoy's house.

"_Draco_ lives here?" she asked with wide eyes, still taking in all the details of the well cleaned residence.

Blaise nodded his head, and she realised she was still holding onto his arm and let go. "It's not as extravagant as the Malfoy Manor, but he does just fine."

"Showing off the house your wife decorated, Zabini?" said a drawling voice in the direction from a room past the dining area.

"Um… you could say that," Blaise replied.

Faint footsteps could be heard against the hardwood floors, walking towards them. Just then, a rush of white-blonde hair came into view with the man's jaw dropping down, close enough to the floor as possible.

"You've got to be shitting me!" he said while he took in the fact that his childhood enemy was in his house.

"Surprisingly enough, those were my exact words," Hermione replied.

"What are you doing here?" he sneered with a look of disgust.

"Isn't it blatantly obvious? I'm here to watch your daughter, Malfoy."

"Well, of course…" The look of revulsion soon disappeared off his face as he looked her up and down.

"Are you checking me out? How disgusting!" This time her face was filled with disgust.

"Only in your dreams." He turned to look at Zabini as if to ask what to do. Apparently he got the response he didn't want as his eyebrows furrowed in disapproval. Then he turned back to Hermione… err… Granger, "There's a list on the kitchen counter." He turned to a closet underneath the staircase and pulled out his cloak. "If you need to owl me, there are instructions on the parchment, too. Alyson should wake up around nine, so you can entertain yourself until then." He buttoned the top of his robes.

"So you want me to stay?" Hermione asked shocked.

"Does it look like I have a choice? Apparently your new found friend here thinks you're entirely suitable for the job, and I'm in dire need of help –as much as I hate to admit that fact to you- and without the proper amount of time to find another nanny to replace you."

She looked at him in awe and her mouth formed the shape of an 'o.' "Okay, well what time does your _wife_ go to work?" She said 'wife' as if disgusted with the fact that anyone could marry that ferret.

Blaise gave her the 'don't-go-there' look, and she blushed, realising he didn't have a wife.

"We'll be back at five, if not earlier." Draco said composing himself again. "I usually come home for lunch with Blaise, but since I have a lot to catch up on, he'll be stopping by himself without me."

"Okay, so see you then Blaise," Hermione replied. Then the two of them disappeared with a crack, and she was left alone.

'What have I gotten myself into?' she asked herself as she walked towards where she assumed the kitchen was. Just like Draco said, there was a list on top of the counter next to where the oven was. 'I wonder if he cooks the meals himself when no one else is around?' Hermione thought.

She took the parchment into her hands and began to read it. The first thing on the list was what Alyson liked to eat for breakfast on Tuesday mornings, and for her to take a bath straight after. Apparently Draco took really good care of his daughter and knew exactly what to do. Waiting until nine rolled around, she sat herself at the tiny table set near one of the walls in the far corner of the kitchen.

Setting her tote atop the table, she took out one of the books she had packed titled _Old and New Theories of Ancient Arithmancy_ and opened it where a bookmark had been placed. Then she reached back into her bag and pulled out some sheets of parchment, her favorite quill, and an ink pot. She scanned the page her book had been turned to, and then started writing some notes down on one of the pieces of parchments that already had half of the page written on.

About forty minutes and three and a half pages of notes later, a little girl walked into the kitchen, pulled one of the chairs out from underneath the table, climbed on top, and stared intently at Hermione.

"Who are you?" she asked in the cutest saccharine voice that one would imagine the shyest girl to have.

"My name's Hermione," she started talking sweetly back to the girl in front of her. "I'm you're new nanny."

"You're pretty!" she exclaimed with a sweet little smile.

"Why thank you. And you're just the cutest girl I have ever seen." Hermione returned the smile.

"I'm Alyson." She then pulled her arm up to reveal a teddy bear in her hands. "This is Gumpfrey."

"Isn't he the cutest bear? He suits you very well." She received a laugh from Alyson. "Are both of you hungry?" Alyson nodded profusely. "How about we eat some breakfast together, I'm quite hungry, too."


	4. Start With the Truth

So here is the next chapter in this story. It's longer than any of the other chapters, but also very important. I hope you all know that it's soaking with foreshadowing... But enjoy, and thanks for all the reviews so far!

**Chapter Four  
Start With the Truth**

After Hermione managed to successfully conjure up some breakfast for Alyson and herself, the little girl took her bath just like she had been instructed to without any complaints. Hermione also made sure that the petite girl brushed her teeth just as Malfoy had made sure she would not forget. It was made entirely impossible to forget; the phrase 'brush teeth' had been underlined three times. She had to admit that he wasn't a bad parent at all and it showed from the way he stressed her hygiene and overall well being. In fact she was surprised that Malfoy cared as much as he did from previous assumptions that were formed from his old habits when they were nothing more than acquaintances.

Once everything that had to be done upon waking up, Alyson was free to do whatever she wanted until lunch time came around; but she only had mornings off on Tuesdays. Hermione suggested that she could read a read book to the blonde-haired girl, but she had insisted that it wasn't too fun on her part. Instead, she wanted to play with her castle set, pretending to be Princess Aly with Queen Mya to be her mother.

The intricate castle was just as tall as the young girl and contained many rooms filled to the brim with furniture in every space, plastic people that would walk around when commanded to, and magical lights that would run solely on magic. One side of the castle was the outside wall that mimicked white stone with fake towers covered in pink, and the other side was open to reveal all that was contained within the tall walls of the fortress.

With the cutest begging voice she cold muster, Aly convinced Hermione to fetch the Princess outfit buried deep within her walk-in closet using magic so she could delve into the display of using a wand. Being like any girl of five years, she had her own real-looking wand that couldn't even perform the simplest of spells due to the fact that not even a single ounce of it contained the powers of magic.

Aly soon came to the conclusion after dressing herself in the grand pink and white gown, that Hermione's looks were no where befitting those of a Queen and told her friend to leave all the worrying to her.

"I'll be right back," Princess Aly stated in the most relevant voice for one of any royal status.

She returned from the inside of her massive closet with a fake jeweled crown, a pair of long white gloves, and what seemed to be ten long pearl necklaces. Hermione kneeled down on the ground so that the blonde could officially make her Queen by resting the sparkling tiara safely on her brown curls and slipping on the necklaces.

For almost two hours, the girls got lost into the fun they had ordering around all the servants and jesters in the castle. There was nothing more self-satisfying than telling one of the maids to try and cook a plastic chicken to no avail and watch her stomp around the kitchen in fury until she clumsily tripped over a chair. After their prolonged laughter died down, they were stricken with an awkward silence as they felt the need for a break.

"I always to be a pwincess," Aly had stated as if it were the most obvious declaration of her life.

"It seems that you already are," Hermione responded while leaning backwards onto her elbows as she sprawled her legs out in front of her, "at least in your father's eyes."

Alyson followed in the same manner. "That's what he calls me. 'Good morning, princess' he always says when I wake up. And he always, _always_ calls Gumpfrey, Gumpy. He says when he is big as me, he wants to be a clown." Hermione scrunched her nose up in response.

"He just doesn't strike me as the clown type."

"That's what I told him!" She received a smile, to which Aly returned. "Mya, what do you want to be?" Her brown eyes sparkled in fascination. Aly just couldn't get herself to say Hermione's name right, so they just settled with Mya.

"Even when I was younger than you, I wanted to be a ballerina!"

"Ooohh!" she awed. "Those really pretty girls with the small pinks dresses and shiny shoes?" Hermione nodded fervently. "I always wanted to try!"

"Well, I used to dance all the time, I could teach you some things if it was okay with your father."

"Do you think we could ask him after lunch?" she asked with so much enthusiasm as her little eyes looked right and left, trying to read Hermione's expressions.

"Of course we can. You can tell me what to say, and I'll write it down," she responded with a smile as she made her way to fully spread out on the rose-colored carpet. "Hmm, I'm getting sleepy."

"No! You can't take nap! We have to play another game!" she whined in the cutest manner. Aly rose up from her own sitting position on the floor and made her way slowly to Hermione. She stuck her arm out and gently poked her in the stomach and shouted, "Tag! You're it!" and then swiftly ran out through the open door of the room with her princess dress waving behind her.

"Oh, no you don't…" Hermione quickly caught on and got up from the floor. "No one ever tags me and gets away with it!" she shouted without being spiteful, just playfully and also ran out the door.

"You have to find me first," Aly sang from a distance.

"Oh, so this has turned into a game of hide-and-seek now?"

"Yep!"

Hermione started tip-toeing around the hall to her left where Aly's voice had been coming from. "Hmm… Where could have Alyson possibly gone to?" she said in a cheery voice, hoping the girl would hear her calls. "Could she be… in the bathroom," and she then flung the door open to the girl's personal bathroom. "Nope not in there…" she said, walking further down the hall.

The shuffling of feet could be heard behind her, and Hermione suddenly turned around to see a flash of blonde hair fly down the staircase. Without any hesitation, she proceeded to go down to the first floor step by step.

"Aly…" she managed to say in that special sing song again. "How will I ever find that girl? Hope she doesn't miss her math tutoring later…"

In the corner of her eye, she saw Aly crawling away from underneath the dining table to the left of the stairs. Hermione then got onto all fours and slowly crawled away into the next room on her right which was the living room, not at all worried for her sanity. She dodged a coffee table, a couch, and almost ran face first into an owl's cage until she reached the door at the end of the room. It was already slightly open, so she pushed it farther and kept on crawling her way around the house.

The room she had entered was a study room with bookcases filled with probably a thousand or so books. Hermione made a mental note to make another trip into that room once Aly was taking her nap. She once again went around a chair, avoiding its random placement not wanting to run into it. Before she reached the door on the other side of the room that would eventually led her to the kitchen, she heard a loud noise that sounded like a pan falling on the hard tile floor.

Figuring it was just Aly emerging from her hiding spot to find another, she quickly ran… or in this case crawled her way speedily into the kitchen, only to find herself ram into something, hard.

"I hope you know you look ridiculous like that," said the voice belonging to the object that blocked her from finding the hidden girl.

She quickly composed herself and got up from the floor with Blaise's help, and flashed a smile that showed she was embarrassed, while patting down the imaginary frizz in her hair that was no longer there.

"Sorry Blaise. Aly and I were playing princesses before and then it turned into a game of tag mixed in with hide-and-seek."

"Yes, well one is always quick to indulge into Aly's fun games. Trust me; I had to wear that tiara not too long ago…" He then shivered as if a cold blast of air had quickly made its way into the kitchen. "Well, I hope you girls have had a tiring day and are now hungry, because I am famished. Where is Aly by the way?"

"She must still be hiding," Hermione replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "ALY!" she yelled out into the house, "Blaise is here. You better hurry or you might just miss him!"

As if apparating at her young age, she quickly popped out from a door in the back of the kitchen that led to the laundry room.

"Uncle Bwaise!" Aly squealed as she ran to the tall brunette man and wrapped her arms around his legs.

"Since I forgot to make lunch today," Hermione began again on the subject of food, "I can apparate to a restaurant and order some take-out, all on me of course. What do you prefer Blaise?"

"You sure about this?" his eyebrow was lifted and he gave her a look of shock.

"I'm not going to poison your food, Zabini. That's something I would expect a Slytherin, namely you, to do to me."

"That's not what I meant you ignorant Gryffindor. I was just wondering if you wanted to risk leaving the house while you're supposed to be babysitting…"

"Oh, right," she said a bit embarrassed once again. "Okay, well I'll give you a few galleons if you don't mind going," she batted her eyelashes in mock flirtation.

"Of course not, I could just apparate all day!" his voice irritably saccharine and fake as well. "Chinese sounds good, how about you?"

"Fine by me. You can also by something to take back to Malfoy because I'm sure he'll probably evade eating."

"How do you know that?" Hermione lifted an eyebrow to him, telling him to take a wild guess. "Oh gotcha, guess Potter and Weasley are the same way, huh?"

"Bingo!"

"Huh?"

"Just go!" she then dropped four galleons into his hand just in case if the price was more than she expected. With another quick pop, he was gone.

**XXX**

Chinese cartons and cheesy fortune cookies were splayed all over the table in the kitchen. Aly was in the chair closest to the back wall, sitting on top of her legs and bouncing up and down, urging Hermione to read her fortune out loud. After Blaise started to pester her, she finally held it some what confidently in her hangs and began to read it.

"Your eyes will soon be sparking, keep them open…? That doesn't even make sense."

"Maybe you should stay away from anything combustible for awhile," Blaise laughed. "But I think it meant to say 'sparkling' instead."

"I would have never guessed that one, Zabini," Hermione responded with sarcasm.

"You know, I haven't seen you in…" he paused to count the numbers in his head, "six years, and your sarcastic tendencies are already getting on my nerves."

"Like I care, I'm not working for you but for Malfoy…"

"I'm gonna go brush my teeth and take a nap now," Alyson said while climbing down the chair. She felt it was time to leave the grownups to their own boring conversations.

"Do you want me to tuck you in, Aly?" Hermione asked, looking for an excuse to leave Blaise's company.

"I'll be okay this one time," came her reply as she disappeared from the room.

"I hope you know I was just kidding, right?" the dark-haired man asked Hermione.

"Yeah, but it just seems that sarcasm tends to rub off on people." A shy smile crept on her lips as she gathered all the empty cartons and useless fortunes to throw away.

"Let me take a wild stab in the dark here, Weasley yet again?" He got up to help clear off the table by taking the leftovers to the icebox.

"Umm… yeah I suppose," Hermione replied wondering if that really was her answer. "Either way old habits die hard. Speaking of which," she sat back down at the table with Blaise following behind, "How _has_ Malfoy been doing lately?"

Blaise lifted in eyebrows in surprise and somewhat amazement. "I'm surprised you care!" That received yet another death glare from Hermione. "He's getting by. Actually he's doing better that just getting by. Even though he has Aly to take care, me and Pansy help him out a lot."

"So I take it Pansy is your wife?" she asked not bothering to correct his grammar mistake, and he nodded in response to her question. "I know you gave me that dirty look when I mentioned Malfoy's wife, but would you mind explaining his situation to me?"

"I don't know if I'm the right person to tell you that, Granger. I'm pretty sure he'd rather tell you himself if I'm not mistaken."

"In my opinion, I think he'd rather not speak to me ever again and run me out of his house."

'Well, it didn't seem that way this morning. He seems rather fond of you," Blaise replied with a cheesy smile he couldn't help but flash.

"Yeah, sure," she rolled her eyes in response. "But I'd rather have you tell me rather than having to resort to embarrassment while asking him myself. Plus, he probably wouldn't be willing to share his personal life with a lowly Mudblood."

"Would you give the whole Mudblood thing a rest? He doesn't think that way anymore!"

"Fine," she smirked uncharacteristically, "only if you promise to acquiesce to my request and tell the truth."

"I walked blindly into that trap, didn't I?"

"You sure did," she smiled. "So, is it a deal?"

"Fine, where to begin… Well, sometime in our last months at Hogwarts he became sort of depressed. Not that he wanted to do anything drastic, but he seemed to mope around a lot. So the day after we left, I took him out to a club next to Hogsmeade to get rid of his… awkward state. While there he met this woman, Candice, and they seemed to both be captivated by each other."

"So they got married?" Hermione asked.

"Hold on, I'm not done. They moved too fast in their relationship, and I think it was because he just needed someone there for him and she just wanted the sex. Less than two months later, she found out she was pregnant. They never got married, but she moved in with us when we lived in a flat together, before I got married also. Well, the day finally came, May sixteenth, right before Draco was to turn nineteen. Candice told Draco to choose the name for their daughter, and so he did. And that's the one thing he's glad about. After they came back from the hospital, two weeks later, he returned to the flat from the park with Aly, and she was gone. Just like that, she picked up and left, saying that she couldn't do it and wasn't responsible enough."

"Surely there must have been a real reason why she just left," Hermione suggested.

"Actually there was," Blaise confirmed. "While she was pregnant, they got into a fight. She wasn't who he really thought she was, and it made him entirely mad. It was the second time he had his heart broken, and she felt as if she couldn't keep up with everything that would be circling her life."

"Second time?"

"I'm sure you know, so don't pretend…"

"Oh, well, what was it that made him mad?" Hermione was practically on the edge of her seat, captivated by how horrible the whole ordeal must have been for him.

"She was a muggle."


	5. Hidden Plans

**Sorry that this one is a bit late. I know you all hate to hear excuses, but when you're father is in the hospital in a different country undergoing dangerous surgery, you're not too much in the mood to spend time on the internet. Yeah, but I found out that crying over it isn't going to solve anything and that I need to keep myself preoccupied before I go instantly crazy. This is also shorter than the other one's and boring, but it's needed to catch you all up on a few things. In fact, I hated writing this. But enjoy.**

**Chapter Five  
Hidden Plans**

Hermione was in absolute shock and sat there staring at Blaise as if he were a fish out of water. She stuck her index finger in ear and shook it around, making sure that she was hearing right. Did he just say that Draco was in a relationship with a muggle? That's more unbelievable than him being with a muggleborn.

"Did you just say she was a muggle?" she repeated, still undeniably shocked. Blaise shook his head eagerly. "But… Why…? How?"

"I know it seems odd that Malfoy was with a muggle, but like I said he didn't know she was. Her sister was a witch, obviously a muggleborn. And Candice knew everything about the wizarding world. I'm not for sure but I think her sister had died, and she revealed in our world, living in it," Blaise explained with a straight face.

"But how could he have been with her and not have known she couldn't do magic?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. But she never did it, and Draco and me never questioned it. Pansy used to give her nasty looks, but she never suspected something like that."

"Wow," the brunette whispered in a hush tone. "It must have been harsh on him."

"Well, he's been doing fine. I mean, he found out about her lies after they knew she was pregnant. Draco only stuck around for Aly, for once to do the right thing."

"But I don't understand why she left," Hermione brought up the unavoidable.

But Blaise didn't answer right away, and took a death breath. "Candice was overly obsessed with our world. I guess it just tore her apart that she couldn't actually _be_ a witch and her daughter would grow up to be one. She didn't think that her mentality would last in our realm, and just took off."

"Draco must be going through a lot since then, huh?"

"No, not really. It tore him apart for a little while after she left, but only because he thought it would be hard on Aly. He knows what it's like to not have parental support and he just didn't want Alyson to go through the same situation."

"I guess you were right…" she replied with a smile, but left Blaise confused.

"Huh?"

"He has changed. The old Malfoy I knew wouldn't have done something like that. I guess it took a major turn in his life to make him realise a few things, huh?" Blaise nodded and gave her a look identical to the one she would give when she wanted to say 'I told you so.' "So I'm assuming Malfoy has full custody of her?"

"Well, no. We haven't bothered with that yet because Candice is out of the picture. Draco figured if she left without wanting to be a part of Aly's life, then that was all the proof he needed to know that she was all his. Plus, she has yet to show up or send an owl or whatever, so we know it won't be a problem."

"Well, if it had been me, I wouldn't have taken the chance. I would have gone to the Ministry and filed a case. Either way, I bet his attitude towards muggles has gotten worse."

"He's still a bit uneasy about muggles because of what happened, but he doesn't curse them to the ends of Egypt. Whether you believe it or not, he's got a heart."

"I never doubted whether or not he had a heart, and you know that. I was just worried that he didn't know how to use it."

"Yeah, well I should be getting back to work now. Thanks for lunch," and within the blink of an eye, he was gone.

**XXX**

A feeling of dread quickly reached Blaise and he wondered if he had made a mistake by telling Granger everything. Hold on… it was Hermione now. He knew that the truth would have to be released soon, but he hadn't thought he would be the one to tell her. Every single sitter so far had wondered where the girl's mother was, but what else was he supposed to say other than telling the story. The truth was that they had no idea where Candice was.

He appeared at the apparition station on the ground floor of the Daily Prophet's main headquarters. Blaise walked to the front desk that guarded the entrance into the rest of the building, and was greeted by a young woman with bright blue hair.

"Good afternoon, sir," the witch said.

"Hello, Madison," Blaise replied while stepping to the side towards a big, husky man. "I see you've changed your hair color _again_." The Auror proceeded to check Blaise to make sure he had nothing dangerous on him, and nodded his head confirming his results. "It compliments your eyes," he added with a smile.

"Thank you, and have a good rest of the day," the witch beamed while Blaise passed security towards the elevator.

He pushed the button to call down the elevator, stepped in, and then pushed the button to lead up to the eleventh floor, where his and Draco's offices were located. He was again greeted by another witch at a desk, but this one didn't have as bold a set of hair. She had dark golden locks that were in two braids running over her shoulders and very calm green eyes.

"Any messages for me Stephanie?" Blaise asked after he said hello back to her.

"Two owls stopped in for you," she said while handing him two thick envelopes, "and Mr. Mathers stopped by and he's in with Mr. Malfoy right now."

"Thanks," Blaise responded and turned to go into his office.

He had been scribbling away on different pieces of parchment for about ten minutes, when Draco barged into the room without knocking. He calmly took a seat in front of his business partner's desk.

"So, how did lunch go?" he asked.

"Just as expected, fulfilling," Blaise responded while still writing notes on the parchment that a story had been written on.

"You told her didn't you?" Draco had a stern look on his face, but Blaise knew it was nothing to be worried about. He looked up from his desk to face Draco.

"She practically begged me. Her puppy dog eyes are not easy to turn down."

"I told you she could make anyone do just about anything. Plus, better you telling her than me."

"You know what I find funny? That she's actually watching Aly. I mean, Hermione Granger watching your child. How much better could this get. This is your chance to finally fix things and get everything back on track."

"Blaise, buddy, it's not going to work okay? It's bad enough that it's been six years since I've seen her."

"See! You even know how long it's been!"

"Bugger off, Zabini. I only knew that because it's been exactly that many years since we've all left Hogwarts, you dope."

"Whatever. I still think you should take this chance. The Fates are probably on your side right now and I wouldn't reject something they're offering for you."

Suddenly, there was a light knock on the door and Blaise ushered them to come in. Stephanie's head popped in through the small crack that the open door gave, and looked towards Draco. "An owl just dropped off a letter for you, Mr. Malfoy," the young witch said in a small flirtatious manner.

"Thank you, Stephanie. Just hold any more letters that come for us until we come back out," he said as he took the parchment from her.

Draco sat back down in his chair and looked the envelope over in his hands.

"Who's it from?" Blaise asked curiously.

"I think it's from Granger." He opened it up and took out the small letter inside and began to read it.

_Mr. Malfoy,  
I'm sorry to bother you at work, but I had promised Alyson that we could write to you after lunch and she had taken a nap. She wanted me to teach her a few steps in ballet after I mentioned to her that I used to dance. I promised her I would if only you gave your permission, so she is requesting your answer.  
Hermione Granger_

"Look at this Blaise; she even referred to me as _Mr. Malfoy_. How am I supposed to go about doing anything about my situation if she acts like I'm her boss?"

"Maybe it's because you are… You just need to talk to her and tell her to relax and start calling you Draco. At least it's a small step towards the end."

Draco let out a huge breath. "Fine, but should I let her go through this whole dancing thing with Aly?"

"Of course you should!" Blaise exclaimed. "It would be an even bigger step to let her know that you trust her with your daughter. Plus, Aly is so captivated by her. You should have seen it, they were playing Hide-and-Seek, and Hermione was crawling around on the floor looking for her."

Draco agreed and was starting to think that having Granger around would benefit him more than he had thought. He wrote back to his house giving permission to have a little fun with dancing. He even thought it was a nice gesture when she had sent over lunch for him earlier. He hadn't been planning on getting anything because he had been too into his work. But when that owl arrived at the front desk with cartons of Chinese, he just couldn't resist.

He was also starting to think harder about Blaise's words. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go through with what they had discussed when they arrived to work that morning. It was a major coincidence that she ended up being Aly's new nanny, and he secretly hoped that there wouldn't be any others. If these plans they had been thinking of actually worked and it went through properly, Alyson wouldn't need a nanny.


	6. Slytherin Courage and Gryffindor Secrecy

**First I want to say thanks to all of my reviewers and your nice words about my dad. He's doing okay, but won't be back home for another two weeks. Thanks again.**

**So this chapter switches point-of-views a lot and there is plenty of conversation to go around, but I love this chapter. I had so much fun writing it and maybe now you guys aren't in the dark about too much now, at least once you're done reading it. I originally hadn't planned it being like this, but I love how it ended up, and I can't wait for the story to continue. But until the real plot develops, read this chapter. Oh, and please R&R.**

**P.S. I will be updating Unwritten Words real soon. It's just undergoing some major changes and beta work. Maybe tomorrow I will post chapter two, but definitely by Sunday night.**

**Chapter Six  
****Slytherin Courage and Gryffindor Secrecy**

"Blaise, I need you to do me a favor," Draco said confidently the second he walked into his business partner's office.

"Obviously it depends on what said favor is, but you can take a stab at it," Blaise replied after setting his quill down. It was nearing five o'clock and he only had one more filed request to go through before he would let himself leave to go home.

"I need you to go to my house after work and dismiss Granger for the day." He knew he couldn't do it himself, or else he would break down in front of her, something he had never done publicly before. It had almost happened when he saw her in his house earlier that morning. Therefore his best and loyal friend would have to do it. No question about it.

The dark haired Italian didn't respond straight away, but instead sat in his chair, barely swirling around in it. Draco, noticing his uneasiness, sat down in a chair across his friend's desk. "Draco, buddy," he began slowly, "you're going to have to do it sooner or later. And I'm not going to be over at your place tomorrow morning, so you might as well get it done now."

"A Malfoy doesn't beg, so I'm not going to. But blackmail is in the family handbook, you know…" he said with his commonplace smirk.

"And what exactly do you have against me? But the bigger question is who would you tell anyway?"

"I could always tell Pansy what you did on the night before the wedding. You know, at your supposedly restrained bachelor's party…"

The man in front of him looked as if he would practically blow, but not from anger. Then suddenly he started to laugh. "You dope… I thought you were supposed to be smarter than me. That so called stripper I had shagged _was_ Pansy. You were just too shit-faced to realise that! Try again."

"I was actually saving that for when I would need it, so technically… I don't have any other chances."

"So, you do know what this means, right?"

"Screw you, Zabini," he tried to yell with malice before storming out of the office.

"No! How 'bout you screw Hermione!" Blaise made sure to yell after him. The door to the office was a hazed glass, but he clearly saw Draco freezing right on the spot after his statement. Score! Blaise – 1, Draco – 0.

**XXX**

Since Alyson hadn't taken a nap right after lunch like she said, she started wearing out around four in the afternoon. The poor girl had already heard the story being told of her mother plenty of times before, but with each time it got harder to hear. The words would bring sadness to the over joyous girl, and bring her hopes down. So when Hermione confronted her about eavesdropping after Blaise left, she tried consoling the poor girl.

After a few tears were shed, her energy swiftly came rushing back. After that, they wrote Aly's father the letter Hermione promised, and quickly received an answer back. So when the house owl returned, they quickly began dancing around. Only the basics of course.

"And this," Hermione had said with the heels of her feet touching back to back and legs perfectly straight, "is what ballerinas call first position."

Alyson struggled to stay balanced but after some posture techniques she quickly caught on. The older of the two continued to work through the five basic steps with the feet, and then adding the arm positions with the transitions. Hermione knew it was a bit too much to memorise in only one hour for such a young girl, but they could always go over it again the next day. And even the day after that.

Once two o'clock came around, Alyson was ready for her usual Tuesday math tutoring. It had absolutely amazed Hermione how incredibly intelligent wizarding children were. When she had been in her first year of primary school, most of the kids couldn't even count properly to twenty. And Alyson could add her numbers perfectly and even begin to do some complex subtracting like 123-95. If she remembered correctly, kids in the muggle world wouldn't get to those lessons until they were seven or eight. It just goes to show how right Ginny had been.

After her tutoring was over at three, they shared a quick snack before Aly started yawning profusely. She had fallen asleep sometime right after four while they were laying on her bedroom floor listening to the Wizard Wireless. Hermione picked up the sleeping beauty, tucked her into bed still with her princess outfit on, and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

As she was walking down the stairs to retreat to the kitchen, Hermione couldn't help but to think how much of a sweet girl Aly was, and she realised how much she was beginning to like her. Being at the Malfoy residence everyday surely wouldn't be a problem.

She gathered her books and parchment once again like she had done earlier that morning, and began working on her lessons for next year. Even though Professor Vector had been an amazing teacher with great lesson plans and complex number charts, Hermione thought it wouldn't hurt to do extra research on the properties of the number six. When she had been an apprentice for the professor straight out of Hogwarts, Hermione had come up with a few ideas while listening to the lessons from a different perspective.

She had been so worked up in studying the number charts in the fold-out from the middle of the book, that she didn't realise that it was already five and had been startled when she heard the noise of apparition behind her.

"Gods, you scared me Malfoy," she said when she jumped in her seat to see who it was. Without thinking, she turned back around and returned to her reading.

"Umm… I didn't mean to…" he replied uncertainly while taking a seat in the chair opposite of her so that he could face her. "So… How's Alyson doing?"

Hermione looked up from her book to notice the easygoing nature of his expression, and smiled. "Well, she's taking a nap right now; all of the excitement from the day wore her out." She closed her book and slipped it back into her tote bag.

"Yeah, I heard from Blaise about your game. I also heard she's quite fond of you." She bit her lip in response to his statement, but her heart started beating slightly faster as the mention of a child liking her.

"She's a great kid, Malfoy. Even at her young age she seems to be aware of real emotion. But she can also be quite the restless child at the same time," she said with a slight chuckle.

"Thanks," he responded quickly after, with no sarcasm. "Really, it means a lot to know that someone doesn't assume her to be another bratty Malfoy who always gets her way."

Hermione raised her eyebrow at him and responded jokingly, "So was that a genuine word of thanks from Draco?"

"I'm serious when it comes to Aly. By the way, how did her math tutoring go?"

"She's also very smart. But then again, look at who her father is…"

"Wow, was that an actual compliment from Granger?" he imitated. Then he suddenly got serious again. "You know, I thought it was going to be a lot harder to come in here and talk to you.'

"Well, that's something good to know," she replied.

"No, seriously."

"I know, trust me Malfoy. It was hard enough for me to actually stay once I found out it was you I would be working for. But now, I find it hard to leave because of Alyson. She said that she actually liked me, and I wouldn't do anything to hurt her." Draco smiled at her comment, and was actually beaming from within. What kind of hysteria would burst within that household if anyone found out?

"Finally! Someone who actually cares!" After that, there was an awkward silence.

"I should probably be going now, if you don't need me any longer," Hermione said while making to get up out of her seat.

"Actually," she then sat back down, "I just want to ask you something." She nodded giving him approval to go on. "Why did you accept the job without asking how much you would be getting paid?"

"Merlin, I pathetically forgot about that! Um, well I was actually just trying to find something useful to occupy my time for the next two months. I'm not too worried about the pay, but it's a bonus!" she said with no embarrassment whatsoever.

"Okay, then if you don't mind me asking, why do you have so much free time for two whole months?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm a professor at Hogwarts now, teaching Arithmancy, and this past year was my first, teaching only third and fourth years while Professor Vector still taught the fifth through seventh years. And the professors don't have too much of anything to do during the summer holidays, except for a few meetings here and there."

"Oh," Draco responded. "I always figured you would be one of those rich and snotty Ministry officials."

"Yeah," she began with a big smile, "someone once told me to go after what I loved instead of accepting the highest bidder." Draco smiled in return. "So I followed their wise advice and went with my heart."

"You're making it so much harder for me…" he said with a sort of saddened smile.

"To do what exactly?" Hermione shifted slightly in her seat, trying her best to make her eyes look into his, but her stare was adverted elsewhere like it had been throughout most of their conversation.

"To resist you…" Uncomfortable pause. "Listen, I know I probably don't have a shot in hell, but I'll go for it anyway. Would you possibly want to go out to dinner with Alyson and me? I mean, you paid for our lunches and everything and it's the least I could do."

"I dunno, Draco… It would be too weird considering everything, and you're now my boss." A soft but noticeable bang was heard just outside the kitchen, but they ignored it as Draco broke in.

"For the second time today, a Malfoy doesn't beg, but I would actually love to take you out. And don't think of me as your boss, but as your… colleague… friend. I know Alyson would love to have you come with us." She sat there in silence for a bit, thinking about it, when Alyson ran in.

"Mya, you have to come!" the little girl begged. At least one Malfoy had the courage to plead…

Hermione began to laugh lightly at her new favorite child, and quickly nodded. "Fine, I'll go. I at least owe you that."

"Goody! Can Gumpfrey come, too?" Aly asked while holding her teddy bear up high.

"Of course, sweetheart," Draco answered before giving his daughter a kiss on the cheek while picking her up to sit on his lap.

"Now you have to give Mya a kiss, Daddy!" the blonde girl exclaimed with a smile. Both of the adults' faces were inched with shock as they stared at the little girl.

"It's okay Aly, I know he cares…" Hermione responded as she felt her face burn and could easily imagine the exact shade of crimson they had turned.

**XXX**

"So you actually went out on a date with Granger?" Pansy Parkinson… err… Zabini asked surprised, sitting in a blonde's living room on her husband's lap.

"Well, yeah… Is that a bad thing?" Draco asked in response.

"It's about flippin' time, Draco. How long has it been, six years?" Draco then stared sternly at Blaise as if would Avada Kedavra him at any second.

"You told her!" he shrieked.

"No, she was the one who told me!" Blaise responded in defense with his hands in the air. "You remember when you had first told me and I said I already knew? Well, you never asked me exactly how I found out."

"Holy Merlin, so just about everyone knows about my own personal life?" he asked while sulking and sinking back into the armchair.

"Listen, sweetie, we just want to help you out," Pansy said comfortingly. "At least she doesn't hate you. If she still carried around the tension you two had, she would have bolted through the door when she showed up at your place. And now that you have taken the first two steps in correcting the past, everything will eventually fall into place."

"At least dinner was a success. She's just as smart as she has always been and just as witty, too. I know there is something there in here that makes us Malfoys attached to her. First me and then Alyson. I'm just glad my father wasn't or isn't around."

"Of course," Blaise and Pansy said simultaneously.

"So, are you actually going to go through with it all?" Blaise continued.

"I don't know for sure. I just don't want to get my heart stomped on yet again. Even though I finally have my chance to get back some love I was deprived of, who says she won't stomp on it again?"

**XXX**

"I still can't believe you went out on a date with Draco!" Ginny squealed. She was sitting with Hermione in her living room while a muggle movie was being playing unnoticed on the television set.

"Hey," Hermione said warningly, "it was _not_ a date. He just wanted to repay me for the lunch I bought for him and Aly," she kept on as if it had been the most obvious reason in the universe.

"Quick being so naïve and trying to ignore the obvious signs! He wants you back in his life and loves it that you're getting along with his daughter. What kind of a man wouldn't want to pursue a woman who's absolutely in love with his child? Well, at least pursue again."

"Listen, it was just a fling that happened at the end of seventh year, and I'm sure we're both over it."

"Are you sure _you're_ over it?" Ginny asked with her eyebrow cocked, and Hermione let out a long breath she was actually trying to hold in.

"No," was her quick response. "Blaise even said that I broke his heart; and of course he was talking about me, because he even pointed out that he knew about the situation."

"Okay… well… did you ever try talking to him about it and apologise for what you did?"

"No… What is this? Twenty questions?" Hermione asked. Ginny just rolled her eyes.

"Maybe now would be the best time…" Ginny said while picking up Hermione's phone then dialed Draco's number and shoved the handset to her chest.

"No…" Hermione whispered.

"Yes!"

"Hello?" said the faint voice of someone from the other line on the phone. Hermione unwillingly put the phone to her ear.

"Hi, Draco, it's Hermione," she said shyly.

"Oh, um, hi."

"Listen, I'm sorry to bug you right now, but I was actually wondering… if we could talk sometime. I mean, only if you want to."

"No, of course I want to. I mean… Yes, that's great. How about you have dinner with me on Friday night, just us two without Aly this time."

"Sounds fine with me. So, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow. Bye." –click-

"So, what did he say, Hermione?" Ginny asked excitedly, bouncing in her spot on the couch, more worried about Hermione's love life instead of hers.

"He asked me out on another date… without Aly," she said, still a bit shocked. Ginny shrieked making Hermione wonder if she could actually be deaf by the time she turned twenty-six.

**XXX**

"Blaise, why in the bloody hell did you do that?" Draco yelled as his friend put the phone back on the hook.

"Because she wanted to have a nice long chat with you, and if it had been you on the phone, you would have chickened out. Plus, this gives you a chance to talk about the past without Aly." Blaise took his seat back on the sofa and placed Pansy back on his lap, but she plopped down so her back was on the couch's cushions.

"Exactly," Pansy said once she was situated. "I'll be glad to watch Alyson for you, I haven't stayed with her in a long time."

"Are you sure?" Draco asked, not knowing what he was uncertain of: Pansy staying in his house for hours at a time and having his best friend shag her on his couch, or taking the chance of going out on a date with his ex-girlfriend from six years ago.


	7. Another Chance

So yes, last chapter we all found out about Draco and Hermione's past. I had been hinting at it for awhile, but now you all know the truth. I wish I could thank everyone personally who has reviewed, but once again I'm completely busy. I'm finally finished at my temp job, and those long ass hours are all in the past now. But now I'm trying to find another job to last me until the end of the summer. And it's currently spring break here in Kansas, so all my friends are finally home along with me, so I've been going to so many people's houses since Friday afternoon.

But I finally have this chapter finished, since I had a few hours of a break from friends. I'm about to leave once again to go to party about twenty minutes out into the country with a few of my close friends. So I decided to post this before we all leave. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, and I'm not a review whore, but this story has **_tons_** of hits, but not enough reviews to show for it. So I probably won't update until I get a good amount of reviews. I hate doing this though…

**Chapter Seven  
Another Chance**

Hermione was still a little uneasy about being in Draco's home for hours at a time every week. The main reason being about their past relationship. And now that the past had seemed to resurface, Wednesday morning found Hermione's nervousness level higher than the day before. Letting him down though, was the furthest thing from her mind as she got ready for yet another day with Alyson.

Her heart already seemed to have a soft spot for the little blonde girl, and she had no idea what she would do with herself if something would happen to Aly. That's why she would and will take care of her as if she was her own daughter.

When she arrived by apparation at the Malfoy residence, Draco had opened the door without a scowl or a smirk on, as had been worn just a day earlier. The effects for their plans on Friday night were already starting to show on his face, and Hermione couldn't help but to think she liked it that way. Draco quickly told her about the list waiting in the kitchen and mentioned that unfortunately he wouldn't be able to join the two girls for lunch. And neither would Blaise because the two men had a meeting to attend.

Once Aly had awaken and breakfast had been eaten, the Reading tutor had popped in for Aly's Wednesday morning lessons. They still had enough time until Hermione had to prepare lunch, so she came up with an idea. If she was going to stick around Aly for awhile, maybe she could get some of her own organization skills to rub off on the slightly untidy girl.

The two of them were sitting down on the floor of the living room with legs spread wide, along with multiple self-inking colored marker-quills, a large poster board, packets of magical stickers, and Hermione's wand for the use to spread glitter. They were working on Hermione's newest project: making a chart to organize Aly's busy life. She had all the days of the week written out along the top and time intervals written on the left side of the poster.

The little girl had several tutors throughout the week, along with Hermione teaching her a few things about ballet; someone had to help her keep everything in working order. Aly was coloring a few stars on the top corners while Hermione flicked her wand to produce sparkling heading letters with silver and gold glitter.

Alyson suggested hanging it up on the kitchen wall under the clock, so that when she would wake up in the morning, everyone would know what would be happening throughout the day. Once they were done cleaning up, Aly helped Hermione make some sandwiches and soup for lunch. They were almost done eating, when the doorbell rang.

Hermione never remembered Draco's policy on answering the door or even the phone, or if there even actually was one. Either way, she slowly made her way to the door, having no clue who could be trying to reach Draco while he was at work.

"Pansy?" she questioned, noticing the raven-haired woman before her. It had also been six years since she had last seen Pansy, and was surprised at how much she had changed. Her short hair had grown out, and her face no longer looked scrunched up. In fact, she was no longer wondering why Blaise wanted to marry her. She actually had a smile on.

"Hello, Hermione. Um, can I come in?" she asked skeptically. Hermione fell out of her stupor, apologized, and made way for Pansy to walk into the house. The second she walked in, she was tackled by Aly who hugged on tight to her legs.

"Auntie Pansy!" she squealed.

"Hey there, sweetie. It's been awhile, huh?" Pansy replied jokingly. "Actually, Auntie came to talk to Hermione here." She was crouched down onto her knees so she was eye level with the little girl, who actually looked confused.

"Oh, you mean Mya…" Aly responded with the widest smile bearing all pearly white teeth.

"Yes, Auntie is going to have a grown-up conversation with Mya. But as soon as we're done, we'll talk about stuff that you like, okay?" Pansy told the girl while holding her delicate hands in her own.

"Even about unicorns and ballet?" Her face lit up, which could almost give a flash of light from a wand a run for its owner's money.

"Anything at all. But then Auntie has to go back to work soon, okay?" Alyson nodded her head fervently, and kissed Pansy on the cheek before skipping up the staircase to leave the two adults alone.

Hermione motioned for the other woman to follow her as she made her way into the kitchen to clean up the slight mess from lunch. Hermione did a simple scourgify spell on her own plate, while Pansy took a seat at the table, minimally keeping her eyes on the woman she had once known to be a unkempt girl. Neither of the two said anything for the few torturing slow minutes, that it took Hermione to finally get everything cleaned up.

The brunette just stood in front of the sink with her hands set on both sides of the cold metal, purposely keeping her back away from Pansy. After taking a deep quick breath, she snapped around facing the other lady.

"Would you like something to eat?" she asked politely and with meaning.

"Oh, no. I already ate lunch down at the salon. But thank you," she replied with a sincere smile. Since when did Pansy actually have manners and was civil towards those with 'lower blood?' Either way, Hermione nodded in response.

She then cautiously made her way towards the table and sat in the chair in front of Pansy. If it wasn't an awkward enough situation already, Hermione had no idea what to say to her. There had been so much drama during their seventh years at Hogwarts, but only a select few knew about some of the issues. And Hermione knew for a fact that Pansy knew all about the secrecy of her relationship with Draco.

Pansy's wrath was almost just as bad as Hermione's own, and that was something that she needed to be given more credit for. Anyone to cross Pansy's wrong path would know exactly how bad it could get for them.

But at that moment, Hermione wanted to make things right with Pansy. She seemed to have grown up quite a considerable amount within the past six years, just as Draco and Blaise had done. If she could easily make peace with Blaise Zabini enough to think of him as a friend and also try to make things right with Draco, then it would only make sense to settle things with another person in their lives.

"Listen, Pansy," Hermione blurt out, even scaring Pansy a bit. "I know I made you incredibly made six years ago with what happened between Draco and me, but I'm sorry for what happened. I'm already trying to work things out with him, so please, can we settle this?" She took a deep breath after she said the last word, for she had been holding it in while speed talking.

"Wow, I'm glad you said it first," she answered with a smile.

"Good."

"Actually, I really came over here to know what you're intending to do with Draco."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that what happened before is all in the past, and now I understand your intentions for what you did. But I really don't want to see Draco's heart broken. And especially Aly, because I've heard she's incredibly fond of you."

"Oh gosh," Hermione breathed. "I'm not going to date him or anything or the sort. I just want to talk to him about my reasons for the past and to make sure we're all going to be okay. We're just going out on Friday so I can apologise thoroughly and have him understand."

"Oh… So you have a boyfriend then?" Pansy asked, looking a bit disappointed.

"No! Not at all."

"Then why does it seem that you're so set against being with him?"

"I'm not. I just don't think that he would actually be willing to go through that again with what had happened."

"Like I've said before, it's all in the past. But Hermione, he still loves you. He personally told me that he wants to take another chance with you, but he's scared of being hurt again. He's gone through so much pain, and I don't want to see him suffer yet again."

"Pansy, I would never hurt him. I never meant to do it in the first place, but sometimes people's priorities get mixed up, and I recently realised that. Nobody is perfect and I made a mistake."

"So would you actually want to be with him again?"

"Without a doubt," Hermione replied with a smile to compete with Aly's.


	8. Start of Something Old

Sorry for the delay for this chapter, but for some strange reason it decided to move itself from my stories folder into my iTunes imported folder… With the help of my beloved brother, I finally found it last night. The last half of this story has been written ever since the beginning, which is where the whole story evolved from. So I'm ecstatic to finally have it up. I made this chapter longer to make up for the long wait, making this the longest chapter at 7 pages on word. So enjoy.

**Chapter Eight  
****Start of Something Old**

"No!" Hermione said sternly, looking into the grand mirror before her, but staring into the eyes of Ginny Weasley, who stood behind her.

"Hermione, this is probably going to be the most influential day in your life, so you have to look good for it! You can't just expect to go out into public with that hair of yours," the fiery redhead replied in a frustrated voice.

"Hey!" Hermione retorted. "My hair is no longer a scraggly mop!"

"I know that! But can you at least work with me here? The situation is big tonight, but your hair can't be."

"Fine, just don't make me look like I belong in a circus."

"Will do, my love," Ginny replied with a grin, speedily getting her fingers dug into her best friend's hair.

It was already Friday night, which meant the 'Big Date with Malfoy,' as the overly dramatic Ginny had donned it. Hermione had openly admitted that she was overly nervous—after a few people had prodded her about it—and that she also needed help. It had been a long while since she had been on a date, and she had no idea what to wear. Especially due to the simple fact that her closet didn't contain any date-worthy material.

"Alright, tea is ready," said a higher-pitched voice, walking slowly into the bedroom.

"Oh Gods, thanks again for coming and helping, Pansy," Hermione said in a more than appreciative voice.

"Merlin, Hermione. How many times are you going to thank me?" the dark haired woman asked playfully while taking a seat on Hermione small—at least in Pansy's opinion—bed.

Ginny kept taking looks into the mirror, holding Hermione's washed and straightened hair in different positions, testing out which ones looked better. Several grunts were released from her pouting lips, obviously unsatisfied with the results.

"Hermione," she said suddenly, "I'm sorry, but you're a hopeless cause!"

"Oh, thanks Gin. Is that really supposed to relieve any weight off of my shoulders?"

Pansy then stood from her relaxed position, where she had been watching the spectacle from, and made her way to the vanity, setting her mug atop it. "Ginny, how about I take care of her hair and you try to come up with something… sexy for her to wear," she said with a conspicuous wink—which Hermione happened to notice within the mirror she was still facing.

"Well… you are the hair stylist here, so that makes sense,' Ginny replied heading into Hermione's closet, but retreated five seconds later, "I forgot little Miss shopaholic here has nothing to wear. Whatever shall we do about this Pansy?"

Ever since Pansy had confronted Hermione that Wednesday afternoon in Draco's house, they had rekindled the small hope of friendship between them. When the brunette and the blonde boy had been dating before, Pansy found out sometime later, and Hermione knew that she knew… Hmm… But the chance for them to really become close what shot to hell after the _incident_.

Then Pansy offered to help her new… ex-Gryffindor… friend out. Especially since her husband's best friend's heart was on the line. Hmm… that was a little bit confusing for the Slytherin's mind. Oh, and then Ginny of course wanted to help her best friend out, so then those two girls agreed to get along—since their lives will forever be intertwined. Yep, forever.

"Well…" the raven haired one of the group began, starting to tug on Hermione's locks, much to her displeasure. "She looks about my size… Floo over to my house—don't worry, Blaise is at Draco's—and see what you can find in my closet. We can alter it later. When you floo in, you'll end up in a living room and you can see the staircase right in front of you. Once you get up there, it's the door all the way at the end of the hall." She said it all without looking up from Hermione's tresses. And with no hint of malevolence or any bad sort of emotion in her voice. Ginny just stood there, staring.

"Now hurry, this isn't defcon five here!"

Hermione looked up at her as if she had just said she wished she had been in Gryffindor. "Where did you hear that from?"

"Um… muggle movie?" she said briefly, but unsure if she should have actually said it. "Does it matter? This is a pressing matter here."

Ginny then went into Hermione's fireplace located in the living room of her flat, and with a quick word of direction, disappeared.

**XXX**

Seven o'clock was soon inching near and Hermione was beyond nervous. She had no idea how the supposed 'date' was going to go, and feared of saying something to hurt Draco once more. It was the last thing she or he needed at that moment.

Ginny and Pansy had already left about ten minutes beforehand. Pansy had to go watch Aly while Draco finished getting ready and Ginny had an unfortunate dinner party type of meeting at her boss's house that night. But the redhead promised to be all ears when Hermione returned from her night out.

Hermione was pacing around in her bathroom, frantically trying to find something on her to fix. Unfortunately, the other girls had done every _single_ thing—except for putting on her undergarments—for her that it turned out perfect. She wanted to poke parts of her hair, but then she was scared that it would get ruined. In fact, she just wanted to stand there, still, hoping to never lose sight of the person that stood in front of her in the mirror.

She was about to brush her teeth for the third time that evening, but suddenly the door bell rang, which made her jump slightly in nervousness. While smoothing out her dress, she walked towards the front door in a fast-paced manner. With a last deep breath in and out, she opened the door. And the sight made her gasp.

Draco was standing there, but not only him. He smiled and pulled a bouquet of lavender and white daisies from behind his back, pushing them towards her. The smile on her face grew.

"You remembered?" she asked softly, taking them from him and breathing in their wonderful scent.

"How could I ever forget? Your favorites quickly became mine," he responded with a slight smirk of happiness. When she didn't say anything, he shuffled his feet about, obviously nervous.

That's when she started taking his appearance in. He was dressed in the most pristine black slacks with a deep blue button-up shirt, with the buttons also colored black. She noticed his black leather shoes, which were shining even under the minimal amount of light.

"You look beautiful, Hermione," Draco said lifting his head to look back into her eyes. A slight blush quickly crept up onto her cheeks.

She was clothed in a light crimson cocktail dress, which reached just right above her knees. The straps came together in the back of her neck, crisscrossing on her back. Ginny had done a great job of picking out the dress, and Hermione instantly fawned over it. Her hair had been set into loose curls that seemed to be wavier, and strands of the locks were pinned to each side with a few pieces framing her face. Even with her high heels on—they weren't too high, mind you—she still wasn't as tall as him.

"Thank you," she managed to say. "You look handsome yourself."

Draco bent his arm, and lifted it up so she could slip her arm through. "Shall we get going?"

"Just let me put these in water first," she said turning to walk into her kitchen. Before she was able to fully leave, he took a hold of her wrist, stopping her in position, and she looked at him confused.

"Let me do it," Draco said with his undeniable smirk. Without letting go of her arm, he pulled out his wand, flicked it with a few murmured, words, and the flowers were quickly in a vase filled with water. With a satisfied smile, Hermione took a hold of Draco's arm, and he apparated them away.

**XXX**

Not even within a split second, they arrived in front of an old but artistically battered down building on the side of a wide road. There was a large sign at the top of the place, above the doors that sparkled brightly from the magic put into it. Hermione's mouth fell open, as she realised where he had apparated her to.

"But Draco, this is expensive. Il Bicchiere? It's the most famous wizarding place to eat in England, and you brought _me_ here?" she asked nervously.

"Who else would I bring to the most prestigious place for dinner?" he said as if the answer was incredulously obvious. And it was.

The blonde put his hand on the small of her back, urging her to walk through the front door he just opened for the both of them, and the host quickly attended to them. He led them to a table almost completely closed off to the other guests for their privacy, and gave them their menus (special of the night was potato soup and grilled salmon with freshly steamed vegetables).

"So," Hermione began, trying to make small talk, while still looking through the menu. "I didn't know you made reservations."

Draco put his menu back on the table, already having decided what to order. "Actually, I made them a few minutes after we got off the phone," he replied truthfully. Hermione could tell he was just as nervous as she was.

She had been looking at the menu for while without actually picking anything yet.

"You can't read Italian, can you?" he asked with a smirk reminding her of their younger years. She then blushed slightly and nodded. "How about if I order for you. You'd eat just about anything, right?"

"How about I just stick to the salmon."

The waiter then came to the table, introduced himself as Gino, and asked what they would like to drink. Draco ordered a bottle of their best wine to split between the two of them. If he was trying to give off a romantic vibe for the evening, Hermione definitely sensed it. After they also ordered their food, Draco began staring at her, but her eyes were downcast, trying to avoid his gaze.

"Hermione, will you look at me?" he pleaded softly. Malfoy's were never supposed to beg, plead, or implore anything under _any_ circumstance. But it was a desperate situation that called for desperate measures. Even if it meant making his father squirm in his grave.

Noticing the earnest in his voice, she brought her eyes to look straight into his gray ones. The second he smiled at her, she felt the sides of her lips twitch up, smiling back at the gorgeous man in front of her. Oh, what she would have done to run her fingers through his hair again.

"I loved you, you know?" he whispered, hoping she had once assumed that. Apparently she hadn't, because her eyes widened, and her smile disappeared.

"You know what would have helped our situation right now?" she asked softly, but only received a shake from his head in response. "If you would have told me that exact statement six years ago." He paused. Seemed to be thinking a little from her words.

"But I wouldn't have Hailey… Did you?" he asked, reaching for her lonely hands across the table, around decorations.

"What?" Hermione asked, accepting his warm hands around her own, reveling in the comfort they released.

"Did you love me?"

She kept her eyes deeply connected with his, still thinking. Did she? Had she really loved him all those years ago when they were only eighteen years old? When they had barely known what life meant. She had never dwelled too much on her exact feelings for the blonde Slytherin, but hadn't love been the reason why she had let him go? She had been worried about his own well being, other than herself. Even though he hadn't agreed with her at the time, letting him go had been one of the best moves they made in their relationship. It had given him Alyson, the greatest thing in his life now.

"Yes," she finally replied. "I loved you very much. It was the reasoning behind my actions. I just hope you can forgive me." She looked at him with pleading eyes, but refused to say please, or anything more. It would just go to show how desperate she was, and desperate woman were never a good thing for a man to come across.

"Forgive you for loving me? I can't do that." He paused for a second, and started rubbing her hand with his thumb. "Remember what you told me, right after we talked about everything?"

"Of course," she smiled.

"'If these past months have meant anything, then your heart will always lead you back to me. If it's worth it to have something better, then let me go.' I believe those were your exact words before you walked away. Leaving me with one last kiss."

"Merlin, you remembered that word for word?" she asked, surprised her words had actually meant something to him.

"I repeated them in my head every night, for months, hoping it was true."

"Well, it seems that big-brained Granger was correct once again," Hermione said with a smile brighter than Draco had seen before. In turn it made him smile.

An unspeakable force was suddenly felt. Neither of them could describe it, nor did they have the time to. They both leaned forward, into each other. Gradually. Inch by Inch. Ever so slowly—it seemed—their faces came together. Eyes were closed, hearts were opened, and lips touched. A powerful kiss that had six years of waiting behind it was ignited. Leaving nothing but them within the entire world.

**XXX**

A minute after they unwillingly broke apart, the waiter returned with their food. Draco poured Hermione another glass of wine, but not too much. They began eating their dishes, without any more words, only a few glances towards each other. After taking three small bites from her delicious house special, Hermione broke the silence.

"How is he?"

"Who?" He knew exactly who she had been talking about, but he felt the need to ask. "My father?" She nodded slightly, taking a sip of wine, looking over the rim of the glass. "Let's just say, good riddance."

"I'm sorry," she blurted all of a sudden, dropping her fork to land on her plate. "I really am sorry."

"It's alright, Hermione," Draco replied with a slight chuckle.

"No, it does matter. It matters a lot. He was the reason why I let you go, and it seems like you're not even perturbed by his death."

"Because I'm not. I'm glad he's gone. He was just another reason why we couldn't bring our relationship out into the open."

"I realise that, but he was still your father, Draco. Even though he was an evil git and brought _you_ into this world, I still had respect for him. I didn't want him to be on his death bed and have his only son worrying more about his relationship with a muggleborn than his dying father. I broke it off with you because of him. And I'm sorry about that…" she trailed off.

"There is nothing to be sorry about, love. Just be glad we're finally here together, and that nothing can take you away from me ever again," Draco replied smiling. "At least there are no more family problems to worry about."

"Okay, I trust you. But let's talk about something else."

"Well, Pansy told me you're still hanging around the Weaslette. Does she live in wizarding London, too?"

"Her name is Ginny… And, yes. She lives a few buildings down from me. We were going to just split an apartment between the two of us, but we figured it would be better to be separate since she's got her boyfriend and we've got different schedules anyway."

"Let me guess, she's with Potter," he said with disgust.

"Surprisingly, no. They broke it off at the end of her seventh year. She's actually with Seamus Finnigan. You remember him, the Irish bloke in our year." He nodded. "Well, they met back up at work. They're both writers for Witch Weekly, so their schedules don't clash too much."

"So what about Pothead and Weaslebee?" Oh great…

"Actually, we're not talking to each other at the moment. Ginny has cut off any connects to them, also."

"So the Golden Trio that turned Shining Quartet has now become two duos. Interesting…" he countered, before taking another bite of his meal. "May I ask as to why that is?"

"Of course…" she said while returning his smirk. "But I'm not going to satisfy it with an answer."

"Works for me. I can also snake it out of you, you know?"

The two lovebirds continued talking of the past while finishing their dinner. Even after their plates had been cleared of any trace of food, they still sat at the back booth, chatting away.

Draco felt a fire being lit up again in his heart. One that hadn't been ablaze for so long, even though attempts were made to create a spark. He knew that she was the only one who could do that, so he enjoyed every second he could get with her. It was hard for them to take things slow at that moment, because the second they got together underneath the moonlight, without it being for business, it had been as if they had never left each other's sides.

They felt as if the past six years had only been memories, without the time passing them by. Smiles once again beautifully graced their faces and laughter was rejoiced in. They once again felt as if they were eighteen years old again, even though they had more important matters to deal with in the past.

Draco looked at the watch on his arm and noticed that they had been at the restaurant for almost two and a half hours.

"Hey, what do you say to eating dessert at my house?" Draco asked confidently.

"And what exactly do you mean by 'dessert'?" she asked, knowing well what he was probably trying to imply.

"Blueberry and Raspberry cheesecake directly from here. We can take it to go, and we can expand our chatting time without making the workers here frustrated." He paused and a smirk began to grow on his face yet again. "And if anything else lowly progresses into happening, then we can't stop Fate, now can we?"

"How many girls have you actually fed that line to?" Hermione asked, trying to hold back her laugh.

"The only one who's worth it… you."

His witty remarks and talent to convince Hermione finally ended up working perfectly. They ordered the dessert, and Draco insisted on paying for the whole meal, making Hermione pout. With the dessert box in one hand and Hermione's hand in the other, he apparated them back into his house. More specifically, his kitchen.

"Hey Draco, what about Aly?" Hermione asked while taking a seat at the table, after she turned the lights on. Was she already that comfortable in his house…?

"Pansy decided to just have her stay the night over her house," he replied in a matter-of-factly tone while getting their dessert plates ready. He then sat down at the table sitting right next to Hermione.

"Oh." She didn't want to question it more, but she had the feeling like they had all planned this out as if they knew she would agree to move the party to his house. "Draco, where is this going?"

"What?"

"This. Us. What is going to happen to us now?" She tried avoiding his gaze by examining her piece of cheesecake before eating it.

"It all depends on what you want. But I would like to let you know, that I'm the best there is out there for you. So if I'm denied, you're only settling for something less," he said smugly.

"Ha ha, way to be conceited. All you have to do is ask, and I might just give you an answer."

"What if you give me the answer that I'm not looking forward to?"

"Just be satisfied knowing that you took another stab at your future with the one girl who is entirely wrong for you," Hermione replied shyly. She would have loved be with him again. Wasn't he the one who she had been waiting all these years for? Denying dates with other desperate blokes—cute ones too, mind you—never had a real reason behind them. But what if it ended up badly again and it never grew into what she wanted out of him? Life was about taking chances, right? So that's what she had to do.

"Touché," Draco replied laughingly. He took a hold of her hand and his face instantly turned serious. "Hermione, would you be willing to start everything over between us?"

Her gaze never left his, and she felt warmth throughout her body radiating from his cool gray eyes. "No, Draco, I can't do that."

His face suddenly lost any emotion, except for the look of being dejected reflecting in his saddened orbs. Where had he gone wrong? He had taken her to the most extravagant restaurant, paid for absolutely everything, never said a mean word all night even about her former friends whom she still cared about, and even started pouring his heart out to her. Now could he ever do anything to win her heart back?

"And why not?" he questioned letting go of her hand.

"Because…" Hermione started, now taking both of his hands into hers. "Starting over would mean having to let go of the past and I'm not ready to do that. If we start over, old memories of us would be neglected and forgotten. I don't want to begin another relationship. I want to pick right back up where we left off."

That instantly put a smile on his face.

**XXX **

You like? I hope so.

But I have the funniest story. Well, not really. But I was cleaning my mother's house yesterday morning—due to spring break, for extra cash—and I was watching a movie while doing her room. I flipped it to HBO and 'My House in Umbria' was on. I've wanted to watch it for a long ass time now, so I took a break. Well, lo and behold. I have this uncanny gift of recognizing people right off the bat from other movies. And seeing as how obsessed with HP that I am, I recognized two people. Maggie Smith aka Professor McGonagall and Timothy Spall aka Wormtail. It was really weird because I had never known they were in that movie. Yeah…

And another bit of useless information. I was driving my dad to the airport way early this morning because he needed to pick up a rental car. And in Kansas City—I think it's on the Missouri side—there is this parkway called Tom Watson Parkway. I just thought it was funny because you know, **Tom** Felton… Emma **Watson**. Don't believe me? Look it up on a map. Yeah, I'll stop now.


	9. Completion

So I had joined this new group called High Life—it's a volunteer type thing—awhile ago, but I'm thinking about leaving that… So with that plus my new job at the amazing Rainforest Café, things are getting hectic around here, especially since I have school. But I'm feeling pretty good about my stories, and I hope you are all, too. Besides all of my chapter stories that I'm working on, I have five one-shots that I'm trying to perfect so I can post. So look out for those.

And you know what's sad? That my most recent one-shot has more hits than this story combined with all the chapters and half the amount of reviews. But that's okay, cause that one was extremely well written and I slaved over it, and this is just for fun.

Oh, and a note regarding the story… I know that Hermione's middle name really is Jane, but for my concept to work, it's not going to be. Sorry, I just don't want everyone to think 'OMG, she's stupid…' okay?

**Chapter Nine  
Completion**

Draco's smile still hadn't faltered, even after a few minutes of silence. He had thought that Hermione was going to reject him and leave him to fend life alone once again. In that quick instant that she had said 'no' he had regretted going out with her, just the tiniest bit. But she had proved him wrong once again.

"You really mean that?" he asked, surprise itching in his throat.

"Of course I meant it. I wouldn't have said it otherwise, you great dope," Hermione replied with a mischievous smile before leaning over and planting a hard and selfish kiss on his lips. She couldn't help herself; he just looked so adorable when he was surprised.

"Wow," he said when they broke apart. "I could definitely get used to that once again."

"Well, I do hope you get used to it, cause it's going to happen quite a bit." She then leaned towards him again and kissed him once more. Then again. And again. And even more. She kept on leaving him kisses, but he wanted more than just a simple peck.

With a few things lingering on in the back of his mind, he got up out of the chair, but still bent down towards her, and let the lip contact linger more as his teeth smoothed themselves over the soft skin on her lips. He bent down farther and scooped her up bridal style, without removing his quickly swelling lips from hers. Trying to stumble his way to the couch in the living room across the other side of his mini-library/study room, he began getting more intimate in his kissing. Hermione had not objected to actions, so he continued to slowly get more into it as he laid her down on the plush cushions.

"Draco…" she begged softly as he let go of all body contact to begin tugging on his shirt, pulling it over his head when he became frustrated with the buttons. She admitted long ago that he looked absolutely ravishing in deep blue, but now he was even more delectable without any shirt on. Especially since he had become more toned since they last saw each other.

He leaned back down swiftly and caught her lips in another kiss to make sure she wouldn't protest again. It started get more passionate, their breaths became erratic, and their hips started absentmindedly grinding into one another.

A low moan was heard, and Hermione instantly knew it had come from her. She knew that Draco could always make her feel that way. Abruptly breaking up the kiss—it was Draco's turn to protest—she tried reaching behind her to unzip her dress, but to no avail.

"Here, let me," Draco whispered huskily in her ear.

He grabbed the end hem of her dress, and inched it up, over her head until it was in a bundle on the floor next to his own shirt. Continuing with his previous activities, Draco made his mark on her neck, leaving a round mess of purple and red spots on her skin. Before they went any further, he made sure to look deep into her eyes, holding her hand.

"I still do love you," he whispered.

**XXX**

The morning light shone in through the curtains of the room, landing on Hermione's face, but still not waking her up. But the body that lay next to her had his eyes open, examining the girl's soft features. He was propped up on one elbow, his head resting on the palm of his hand, while his other hand softly touched Hermione's cheek, brushing away stray hair.

Sometime during the night, their anything-but-discreet activates were moved to Draco's bedroom where they would be more comfortable on his bed. Hermione had hurriedly agreed to Draco's pleas for her to stay the night at his house, seeing as his daughter was at Pansy's. So upon waking up, the little girl wouldn't walk into something her innocent eyes weren't ready to witness.

Her eyes started to slowly flutter open while a smile playing on her lips as she remembered the events from the night before.

"Morning," Draco greeted before leaning down for a kiss.

"Good morning to you too," she responded after they broke apart. "I would love to wake up like this every morning."

"Yes, it's great, isn't it? But we shouldn't move too fast. We've already taken a huge leap." He started making circles around her belly button with his finger. She didn't respond, but Draco knew that she agreed.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" she asked, with a worried look slowly making its appearance on her face.

"About what?"

"Aly and I. I mean, I can't expect my boyfriend to pay me for watching his kid now. It's sort of gauche and unconventional," she pointed out while looking into his eyes. All he did was show off his rather annoying but cute smirk in response to her concern.

"Are you calling me your boyfriend, now?" he asked, finding it the perfect chance to toy around with her. She started to blush, just like he had expected her to do.

"Oh Gods, I didn't mean to just jump at it like that… Sorry," she apologized, hiding under the covers so he wouldn't be able to see her embarrassment.

"No need to apologise, love," Draco said, following her underneath the covers and kissing her on the forehead. "I would be absolutely grateful if you were my girlfriend."

"Good. Now that we have established that we are together, I want to know if you still want me to look after Aly," she asked, emerging from underneath the covers that started to suffocate her.

"Of course I—" he started but was interrupted.

"But I don't want you to pay me," she stated harshly, as if putting as much meaning as she could into it.

"Why not?" he asked stupidly.

"Because," the brunette—with her hair now a tangled mess—stated. "You're my boyfriend now, and it would just be awkward."

"You bloody Gryffindors," Draco snorted in retaliation. "You and your bloody pride."

"At least you can keep your money and still have someone to watch Alyson. Isn't that a good enough deal for you?"

"Well, if you put it that way…" he smirked slyly, resting his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her wonderful scent. He had missed the smell that made him realise what was actually worth doing in life. Not literally…

After awhile, something that Hermione had wanted to ask him, popped back in her head. "Draco?" she asked him, making sure he hadn't drifted off to sleep again.

"Hmm…" was his tired and lazy reply.

"Can I ask you something?" He lifted his head up to look at her with his ingenious smirk that he had perfect.

"You just did, but I can grant you another one." Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"Where'd you come up with Alyson's name?" That's when Draco sat up fully, with his back against the headboard, with a smile playing at his lips, where the smirk had quietly disappeared.

"I was hoping you would ask me that sometime soon… Well, you know her middle name, right?" When she shook her head no, he continued. "Her full name is Alyson Emilia Malfoy. I'm assuming you know where I got Emilia from?"

She sat there in awe. "From my favorite play…" she whispered.

"Of course: Othello. And I always knew that you're favorite lesson was Arithmancy, and obviously that's true now," he smirked. "_Hermione Elizabeth Granger_. You, of course, know what your Character number is… 4. _Draco Thuban Malfoy…_ the sexiest man to walk the earth—"

"You're a five…" she said surprised. "I can't believe I never figured it…"

"Yes, my pet. We complete each other. Now take my daughter's full name, _Alyson Emilia Malfoy_. What do you think her number is?" he questioned with his smirk still lingering on his lips, ecstatic that for once, he was able to talk her way through a problem.

She counted in her head for about a minute, and then whispered what she came up with, "9."

"We complete each other, and she completes us," Draco said proudly.

"What about Candice? She just let you name her daughter whatever you wished? She didn't care about the explanation behind it all?" Hermione was confused… What kind of person could mother a child inside her for nine months, and then just leave like none of mattered… not even caring what she would be named. It was such a huge responsibility, but a bigger reward, and Candice had let it all go.

"Ha!" Draco laughed. "You're talking about the woman that was so immature, that she left and hasn't been heard from in years."

She laughs at his calm demeanor when he talks about his daughter's mother, and he just smiles, enjoying the sound her expression of amusement makes while ringing endlessly in his ears. And he just lays there, looking at her, and content not knowing what was stored in the future any longer. But then she begins to worry of the past.

"Draco?" she asks softly, trying not to shatter the silence too harshly. "Why me?"

And he instantly knew what she meant. Why he had always thought about her, and why Alyson had been a reminder of Hermione and never of Candice. Why had it been her to shatter his heart in a thousand pieces while his most recent ex had only been able to crush it into a few.

"I never loved anyone else," he answered truthfully and with pride. "It was those strange days in the library when I saw your innocent face that really stood out and kept me wondering. Since then it's always been about you." His voice was so calm, that it felt so surreal to Hermione. It was very hard to be in a situation with Draco when he wasn't saving room on his face for a smirk or challenging someone, so when he finished talking, she burst into laughter.

"Sorry," she chocked out. "It's not that I don't believe you… You're just so serious."

…

I know… Not much went down and just a bunch of fluff and stuff, but I felt it necessary since the past few chapters have been building up to this point. But the real plot and the good stuff is coming next chapter. Which I promise—or at least will try—to post up a lot quicker than this one had been put up.


	10. Unexpected Surprise

Yes, it has been quite awhile, but like I've said before, life is hectic. I know that this story isn't amazing quality and is not hard to write, but I don't have the time to write any of it. I know what is going to happen—exactly—but it takes something that I don't have to actually take things from memory to the computer screen. But I do hope that this chapter satisfies your hunger for awhile, that is… until I can get the time to complete chapter eleven. But I'm off for the rest of today and all of tomorrow, but I have a test at night tomorrow, so I'll see what I can get done.

Yet again, a big thanks goes out to all of those who have taken a few minutes out of their busy day to read my story **and then** even leave a comment about it. It really means a lot to me to know that a few certain people do enjoy this. So don't worry, this story will keep on going even if the count goes down to only one review. But please, don't let that be an excuse to not share your thoughts about this story with me.

**Chapter Ten  
Unexpected Surprise**

A month had gone by since Draco and Hermione had officially become an item again. The brunette had continued to take care of Alyson every weekday and then would go to spend time with the two blondes during the weekend. Even though only a short time had gone by, Hermione felt like she had her own family, even though Alyson wasn't a child to call her own.

Draco and Hermione had only gone out into Wizarding Britain twice since their last date, but the news of the couple had spread like the Dragon Plague of 1602. For the most part, everyone congratulated them and accepted their relationship. But they still received some dirty looks because they thought that the owner of The Daily Prophet could have done better. And that was the reason why they resorted to staying around Draco's house or the park down the street within his neighbourhood. And this time, they were finally going out.

The Saturday morning sun was still shining brightly and burning as hot as it should have been in the summertime. It was a gorgeous day outside with the sky being clear of most white puffs of clouds and the grass a deep green colour.

It had been Hermione's idea to spend the day with Alyson outdoors, and Draco proposed to invite Blaise and Pansy along. Since it was only a bit after nine in the morning, the two lovebirds were still waiting for the other three members of the group to show up for breakfast. Alyson had stayed with her Auntie Pansy again the night before because they had attended a show for Flames the Magical Dragon—Alyson's favourite comic in her weekly children's magazine.

"You can't feed a child sugar for breakfast," Hermione lectured, taking away the candy from Draco's hand. "She'd be hyperactive all day and would go without her nap."

"But she loves donuts," he countered.

"Do _you_ want your little girl going wild all day long?"

"No… but she'll be upset. She loves her dough with glaze weighing it down."

"She's only five years old, Draco. You can't give her everything she wants because she's not the one to decide what's right for her."

"Fine then, what do you suggest we serve for breakfast?" Draco thought it was an absolute outrage that for the first time ever he himself had to prepare their morning meal. He didn't have the slightest idea how to fix up food. That's why he had Hermione help him out.

"How about some fruit so she can still get some sugar, and I can teach you how make some amazing omelettes?" she responded with a huge smile.

Without waiting for an answer, Hermione got to work preparing the ingredients to make the omelettes before the rest of their party showed up.

After the meal was finished off with a glass of orange juice for Alyson and a round of coffee for everyone else, they prepared to head off to the zoo for the beginning of the day. Alyson had argued that she had already been to the Wizarding Zoo plenty of times, but never to the muggle one. So with Draco grinning like the mad child Hermione imagined him to be, he agreed.

Knowing that all five of them couldn't just apparate to the front gates, Hermione had arrived at Draco's place that morning with her car so she could drive them there. None of the other four had ever been in a muggle contraption of the sort before, so they were sort of sceptical about stepping foot into it. All except Alyson, she had hopped straight into the front seat without any hesitation.

"Come _on_, Daddy! We're gonna be late!" Aly begged her father to get in.

"Fine, but you can't sit in the front. How about letting Pansy sit there with Hermione?" He had no intention of letting go of his daughter for even a split second that day for the fear of losing one of the most important things in his life. Even if was to sit in the back of the car with her aunt and uncle.

"No!" she whined. "I want to sit with Hermione! You can sit with auntie and uncle." She crossed her arms over her chest and tucked her feet under her bottom as if trying to tell her father to defy her wishes.

Draco caught Hermione's cold stare, silently telling him to take control and not give in. He needed to be a father, not her best friend. He got down on his knees on the hard concrete so he could be eye level with Aly.

"I'm sorry honey, but we're going to have to sit in the back. You're not old enough to be up here. You can sit right in between your Uncle Blaise and me, how does that sound?" he asked, brushing his hand through the hair left hanging out of the ponytail Hermione had put her hair in, trying to sound sympathetic. No, wait, he actually was sympathizing with her.

Her eyes started glazing over, and she flashed her puppy eyes and pouting lips towards Draco. "Bu—Bu— But, I wanna sit where the big people sit!" She squeezed tighter onto Gumpfrey, whom she had brought along with her, and looking pleadingly into her father's eyes.

"Sweetie, us guys are big people too, and we're going to sit in the back." Was it possible that he was insulted by his own daughter's words that he wasn't as 'big' and his girlfriend and best-friend were? Of course, his face had become flushed.

"Fine, let me put it this way! I want to sit with Auntie and Hermione!"

"Don't you start getting sassy with me young lady," Draco fought back, his nerves about to explode right then and there. He had never gotten angry at Alyson before, but that was the moment that he realised that Hermione had been right. Aly had been running all over him and controlling him, and he needed to take that hold back or it would be too late. "If you don't shape up, then we'll not be going to the zoo, you got that," he replied sternly, seriously trying to get his point across.

With his final demand, Aly got up slowly by pushing herself off of the seat, and with her lip still quivering she got into the back seat, sitting next to her Uncle followed by her father. Pansy then hopped into the front seat without saying a word, but a slight smile was noticeable on her face. She was proud that her friend finally had the guts to set the order back around to the way it should have been.

After telling everyone to put their seatbelts on—and then explaining what they were and their purpose—Hermione started the car and drove off towards the direction of the London Zoo.

Twenty minutes later and no spoken words from Draco's mouth—probably from shock—they all arrived in one piece in the parking lot. Blaise was still thought it amazing that they were able to travel with a muggle contraption, and not end up being splinched, maybe losing a finger or even a leg. For that, they were all thankful. So to not ruin their excitement, Hermione decided to leave out information on car crashes…

Even though she felt a bit sceptical about having wizards with her in muggle territory, Hermione felt a little bit of pride and power running through her. She was the only one in the group who knew what was going on, and she liked the feeling of being on top of things. It was also a bit off having them following her every move as if they were scared that a muggle might attack them any second, but again she felt like the leader of the pack, something she had never felt before when she was just another minion.

After crossing through the parking lot—another concept she had to explain to the ex-Slytherin posse—and trailing up the sidewalk a little bit, Hermione had led them to the front gate where the ticket counter was.

Since it had been her idea to go on an outing that Saturday, Hermione offered to pay for everybody's tickets, but Draco just wouldn't accept it. She had already refused payment from him for a whole month, returned the galleons he had snuck into her dresser drawer, and had even bought him lunch a few days beforehand, so there was no way he would let her get away with it that time.

With his work, Draco had to deal with British muggle money every once in awhile when they had deals with muggle companies run by muggle-borns, so he knew the exchange rate pretty well and even had some money taken from his Gringotts account and exchanged into pounds. So when the lady behind the counter asked for £61.75, he quickly whipped his money out from the pocket on his slacks.

"Here are your five tickets, sir. Thank you, and have a splendid day," the young lady whose nametag said Margie, said with a smile, pointing out the way towards the real entrance to the zoo.

"Daddy… Can I hold my own ticket?" little Aly asked her father, lightly tugging on the hem of the t-shirt he had put on that morning.

Not knowing what to do, he snuck a quick side glance towards his mentor in the mission to gain control, Hermione, and he saw her silently mouth a word he recognised all too well.

"What's the magic word?" Draco asked Aly, still not letting go of his tight grip on the only child's ticket among the others.

"Please?" she asked, hiding her hand that had still been carrying Gumpfrey behind her back, swinging back and forth from the tips of her toes to her heels.

"Good, now remember that word for the future, okay?" She nodded joyously and took the ticket from her father's hand.

* * *

They had been at the zoo for about an hour when Aly started asking for something to eat. Her stomach had been grumbling and that was something that Draco couldn't deny. But since she was the only one hungry besides Pansy's complaining self, the older girl suggested that the two of them go and get something to eat by themselves while the others visit a gift shop.

Draco hadn't been too keen on letting his daughter wander without him in such a crowded place, and it wasn't because they were muggles. But then again, Pansy was someone he trusted and knew all too well, sometimes too much for his own well being.

But then Blaise had offered to accompany the two girls when he decided that besides it's odd name, a hot dog sounded like it would do his stomach some good.

The three of them wandered off to the right towards the closest concession stand while Draco kept his eyes on their diminishing backs. Hermione had managed to jerk his head away and look at her instead after awhile.

"Love, don't worry, she's in safe hands. I trust them, and I know you do, too."

"It's not that Hermione," Draco said, finally walking away towards the gift shop that resided behind them. "It's that I don't trust any other creep-o out there and I had promised that I would always keep her safe."

Hermione could see the worry in his eyes and completely understood. Alyson Malfoy wasn't one of those many people that could easily walk into her life and leave in the same manner. If something were to happen, she could never live the same way because the little girl's smile would always be echoing in her mind. Even if she were to just get hurt, it would tear a hole in Hermione's heart, which was something she did **not** want to happen again.

"Thank you," Draco suddenly said, walking up behind Hermione while she had been looking for a souvenir keychain to buy for Ginny, like she had promised.

"For what?" she replied, even though she really knew what he had been talking about.

"For helping me out with Alyson. She definitely needs you around." He smiled brightly, holding her by the waist, pulling her in for a kiss.

"Don't worry. I'll be here because I'm not going anywhere, Draco."

"Good, because she really loves you. You're not just a friend to her like Pansy is, but you know how to keep her under control, and she's been lacking that in her life."

"Well, I don't know if I could ever be a mother to her, but I'll always help you out." And it was the truth. Even though her biological mother was never around anyway, she didn't want to take the role of a mother in the girl's life. It just wasn't her place to try.

"How about that over there?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"That orange t-shirt." He pointed to a rack on the left where there were a few shirts on display with more of them stacked underneath. "Weren't you looking for something for little Weasley?"

"Hey! I have told you her name is Ginny," she retorted, not too excited that he couldn't just simply call her by her first name.

"But you do have to admit it's better than Weaslette…"

Before Hermione could even respond, Draco's head snapped to the right towards the window of the shop when he saw movement outside. Pansy was running faster than normal pace from the bathroom, and when she reached the picnic table they had been sitting at, Blaise quickly shot up from the bench. Something was definitely not right.

"Do you think she got a hold of a bad hot dog?" Hermione asked a twisted smile playing on her face.

"I don't think that's what's wrong…" the blonde replied softly, but tugging hard on Hermione's arm trying to bring her along to the outside of the store.

His pace picked up a considerable amount when he saw Pansy's stressful-looking face and her hands grabbing a hold of her face in a worried manner. She was pacing around the area, looking in every direction that her neck would allow for her head to turn in.

Suddenly, Hermione realised what was going on and became just as worried as Draco had been.

"Pansy!" Draco shouted, still approaching her.

"Draco! Oh my god, Draco!" she cried back.

"Where's Aly! Pansy, Where is Aly?" he asked hysterical, his face turning paler than the underside of a baby's bottom.

"I don't know! She said she wanted to use the restroom by herself. But when she never came back out, I went in there, and she wasn't there… Draco, she's gone!"

* * *

Yes, cliff-hanger… I'm evil like that. Have you read Unwritten Words lately?

By the way, £61.75 converted is a little less than $110 in America. And yes, that is how much it would cost for one child and four adults to get into the London Zoo, I looked it up on their website.


	11. We're in This Together

That was a quick update, wasn't it? Well I told you I had some time off from work, and classes have been easing down lately, so getting this all out wasn't a problem at all. And chapter twelve is also being worked on, but I don't know when it will be posted, but soon I promise.

Now I just have a little poll for you all, so please at least answer this. Should I delete **Salvage My Memories**? I have had no ideas whatsoever for that story and it's WAY too OOC without a reason for it to be. And it became too boring. So either way I will not be continuing it, I just want to know if I should keep it archived or not.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, go to **invisiblechildren dot com**. It's a sort of protest for children in Uganda Africa and it's going on all over the country this Saturday. Please think about it because it's for a good cause. It's costs absolutely nothing except your heart and time.

**Chapter Eleven  
We're in This Together**

"How could you let her go, Pansy?" Draco kept on hysterically, running around the picnic table, hoping she was hiding underneath, keeping up a game of hide-and-seek.

"She's five years old, Draco. She should be capable enough to use the restroom by herself," Pansy countered back.

Hermione started sprinting to where the loo was, right behind the concessions and it was in clear view from the table that Pansy had been sitting at with Blaise and Alyson. It would have been very hard to miss seeing the little girl coming out, especially missing someone else wandering in. She opened the door and ran in, looking everywhere a small child could hide in. Hermione checked every stall, under the sink, and in every corner. Still no luck.

Five year old magical children obviously couldn't disapparate, and there was no way they could conjure enough power to do any sort of invisibility charm. Where could she possibly be?

The brunette left the small ladies room and without having any second thoughts about it, opened up the door to the men's restroom, hoping for her own sake plus Aly's, that she wasn't in there. And of course, no luck there either.

She emerged from the bathroom area, going back to the spot she had just been at, to see Draco acting panic-stricken with a few muggle cops asking about the situation.

"When was the last time anyone saw this baby girl?" she heard the taller cop with a pathetic excuse for a mustache hanging over his lips, asking Draco while taking notes on a small pad of paper.

"For the second time, she's not a baby," Pansy screeched at the cop, her patience wearing thin, and it showed from the way her hands looked more like claws.

"Less than five minutes ago," Hermione butted in, with worry filling her voice and her face rigid as ever, but she was bound to get out of control any second. "She was sitting at this bench, eating lunch with our two friends here," she explained calmer than she should have been.

"I see." The same man wrote a few more words on his notepad, and then looked back up at Draco. "And you're the father, right?"

"Yes! She's my daughter like I've already pointed out, idiot!" Draco responded with a bucketful of anger, but said the last word a bit more hushed.

"Sir, there is no room for name calling," the other office behind the taller one said, finally serving a purpose for being there.

"Humph!" Draco grunted, ready to just find his daughter, the one person he had never wanted to let go of.

The main officer looked up at Hermione and said, "and you're the child's mother, ma'am?" with his pencil in his hand, ready to write the frantic woman's reply down.

"Oh no, I'm just his girlfriend," she responded, pointing to Draco, her hand shaking uncontrollably. She was surprised that the man made the assumption rather than asking Pansy, but it still brought a smile to her face with the fact lingering in her mind that someone, anyone, thought that she was capable of being a mother. Especially a mother to Alyson.

"Alright…" Bill—Hermione finally took the chance to read the tag with his name on it—responded with a low hum, possibly thinking of what to do.

Wasn't he supposed to be a professional and already have Aly back in Draco's arms, being coddled over by everyone? Where in the world could she have gone to? Did she leave willingly? Could someone have possibly taken her away, kidnapping the most precious child away from the adults that loved her so much? Hermione along with Draco, had so many questions circling around in their mind, that they were both becoming dizzy, with a nauseating feeling erupting in their stomachs.

"So she's 103 centimeters, shoulder length blonde hair in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes, with a yellow t-shirt and a jean skirt on, correct?" he asked, confirming the details Draco had given him while Hermione had been searching in the restrooms.

"Yes," Hermione responded before Draco had a chance to shoot a nasty comment out at the officer because she knew how he would get when his patience wore thinner than it was. His mouth had already been open to say something, but she had beaten him to it. "And she's carrying around a dark brown teddy bear with a red bow around its neck, and she calls him Gumpfrey." The officer nodded, adding the new information once again into his tiny book. "Officer, just please find her, she means so much to us. Please," she begged, something she had never gotten used to.

"Ma'am, we'll do our best," the second officer, George, said.

"I just have one more question," Bill started.

"Sure, anything," Pansy said, hoping that she could do whatever would be helpful because she felt completely guilty for losing Aly.

"Would there be anyone, anybody you can think of, that would have motive for possibly kidnapping her?"

Draco, thought for a second, sorting through all the people he had ever met in his life, even if Alyson had never been in contact with them. They could take out revenge on him by harming Aly, or even hurting him more than anything by taking her away. He thought of people back from his Hogwarts days, important people from the summer, witches and wizards from work, and even regular people he saw at restaurants that knew him by name.

"No, no one I can think of off the top of my head," the blonde wizard replied.

"Alright. Gather all of your things and meet me in the police station near the entrance. We're going to try and touch base with the security guards at the end of the zoo, making sure they haven't seen her."

"Thank you, sir. We'll be right there," Blaise finally opened his mouth.

A thought instantly struck Hermione with the cop's last statement, and she swiftly reached out for Draco's arm, trying to stop him from leaving. She got on the tip of her toes, trying to make it so that only her boyfriend could hear her next words.

"Draco, do you think it's a good idea to let the muggle cops take care of this?"

"Huh? You don't think they can find her?" Draco thought that maybe her hope was already starting to diminish, but it was too soon.

"It's not that. But they won't have any of our records in their system, because technically we don't exist to them. We should let the Aurors take care of this," she tried to keep on whispering. Apparently it didn't work all too well.

"George," Bill began saying after taking only two steps away from the area they had been standing around, "how about you go on ahead and make your way to the station. We'll all head there in a minute."

The other man nodded, understanding that there was business to be taken care of that he didn't have any part taking in it. He turned around, taking long strides in the opposite direction, away from everyone else. The other man looked at Hermione, and that's when she realised that he probably had heard the words she wished to exchange only with Draco.

"So you're all wizards then, I'm guessing?" That was a bold move.

"Umm…" Draco was at a loss for words. How could that muggle man possibly have known? Was he one, too?

"It's alright. Only the top officials in police stations located in major cities know. I'm from the London department, but only here training other officials." Bill was quite blunt in his statements, but it still kept on bothering Hermione as to why they would need to know about the wizarding world.

"Why?" the brunette girl found herself asking.

"We keep in contact with your own officials—Aurors, are they?—because cases like this tend to happen. I'm not too familiar with the things that go on in your world, but I'm told that there are certain people that are born from us without magic, that still keep in contact with their original world. Like you are doing now. In these situations, we were told to take care of things as far as we could take them, and then let your Aurors take it from the point where us cops can't continue any longer."

"Oh," Pansy and Blaise gasped in unison, realising how much these 'strange' people could actually help them.

"But we'll look around the park first, and then when we're positive your daughter is no longer here, we'll escort you down to your own Ministry."

Hermione silently prayed that real soon, Alyson would be back with them, having found her in the park. But even as she asked whatever deity ruled the sky to bring her back right then, she had doubt that anytime soon she would be surrounded with the best magic she knew: a child's love.

**XXX**

All four adults were sitting in a waiting room in the small station that the zoo offered for security purposes, but still on comfortable couches. Pansy and Blaise were sitting in one together, with Blaise comforting his wife who had been crying and blaming herself that it was all her fault. 'If only I hadn't let her out of my sight! I don't care that it was for one minute!' Her tears had all been used up, but they still remained on her cheeks, reminding her that it was not over.

Draco and Hermione were in the other couch that was perpendicular to the other one, with Hermione sitting in between the blonde's legs, so that he wouldn't be able to see her face. She didn't want him to see her crying. Hermione Granger was not one to cry, and she refused to show weakness. But she did love the comfort her boyfriend's arms offered to her.

They were all waiting for the final word from the security guards and police officers that the whole zoo grounds had been searched, and if Alyson had been located or not. And the silence was excruciating.

"It's okay to cry sometimes," Draco pointed out, also letting the girl in front of him knowing that he felt her hot tears.

"I know," she let out in a hushed tone, barely being audible. "But I'm not used to doing it so openly."

Silence once again filled the thick air, almost feeling as if the room would just as soon be filled with fog and smoke. Everyone had so many thoughts in their head, but something was worrying Draco more and more as he kept on thinking about it.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" he asked, concerned for his own sanity. He couldn't take it if he was about to lose somebody that he actually for, for the third time in his life. He just would not let her leave this time.

But Hermione was so shocked at his question, that she lifted herself up and twisted her body so she was sitting on his lap, arms around his neck and looked at him with the one emotion that he felt he never had enough of.

"I would never do that again. Losing someone is the worst feeling ever and I would never subject you to that kind of pain ever again. Finding Alyson is something that we both need to do together, and I will not leave your side for a single second," she answered his worries with the response he had hoped for, with determination set in her voice. If anyone could fine Alyson it would be Draco, and she would help him in anyway possible.

"I was hoping you would say something along those lines."

Hermione wasn't sure, but she thought she could see his eyes cloud over with unshed tears. She wasn't sure if they were there because of the emptiness he felt because his only daughter was gone, or if they were presented because it was set in stone that the love of his life wasn't going anywhere.

"I love you, Draco. We'll get through this, I promise. The wildest fire, widest ocean, tallest mountain, or bitchiest person will not stop me from holding Alyson once again in my arms. I will get her back for you."


	12. Where the Lost are Found

Yes, yes, I know. It has been_ way _too long to even begin to count. And I wish I could say that I was sorry or that I _am_, but that would be a complete lie. I really needed that break from fan fiction because my brain was on over-drive. I did keep up on a few stories I had been reading here and there, but the main thing that I was working on was my entry for the Dramione fic exchange.

But here is another chapter of Working For the Enemy just for you guys who have been sending me countless e-mails and PM's to update this and Unwritten Words. And I have to say that I really don't know when I will get the next chapter for UW up. It will take some time though because it doesn't even have one word written for it yet.

R&R!

**Chapter Twelve**

**Where the Lost are Found**

It was a night that nobody wanted to remember, let alone keep on thinking about. Disaster had stuck everyone's life in the most unimaginable way, and it hurt more than any Cruciatus could. It just didn't churn the heart, but the veins began to prick and the muscles started to ache. Feeling was no longer something that passed by in a second and was long forgotten about, but it lingered, and the longer they felt the hurt, the number they became.

They had long left the station, with no news of Alyson's whereabouts. It was almost blindingly obvious that she had left the station as well.

The chiming of the grandfather clock rose Hermione's senses a bit, with the curiosity rising more and more, and forcing her to turn her head. Three chimes. It was only three in the morning, and she was still awake. And it wasn't just three the following morning, but two mornings later. Monday, to be exact.

Hermione had finally succeeded in her attempts to get her boyfriend to fall asleep. Draco had gone all day Sunday and the rest of that Saturday without shutting his eyes for the mere purpose of blinking. She had vowed to not leave his side for more than a minute in his time of need, so she had stayed in that big house with him during every ticking second. After finally convincing him that he couldn't go without any sleep, she led him slowly up the stairs and laid him down on his bed.

It's probably not the wisest thing to say that it was a tender moment, lying there, especially the way that their lives were going. But it was true. Both of them still on their sides, never taking both pairs of eyes away from the other. Hermione pulled him in closer, so their bodies where almost one, and she silently stroked his platinum hair. Humming a quite lullaby apparently had worked, because in half an hour, he had finally closed his eyelids.

But that had been a few hours ago, and she herself couldn't seem to get any sleep. She had left the bed to give Draco more space and comfort, knowing that her uneasiness would probably rub off on him. And all she wanted was for him to be relaxed.

And the food situation was even worse. Neither of them had taken a bite of food since Alyson's disappearance. The only thing that would touch their lips would be either mugs of coffee of cups of tea to keep them awake.

Hermione had attempted to get some sort of nourishment into their stomachs, but they would just pick at the food with the silverware, making shapes out of the mashed potatoes or meat. Their stomachs would grumble with so much force while they sat there idly, but it had not been enough motivation to replenish their digestive system.

She could feel her stomach begin to eat itself as she sat curled up on the sofa, quietly listening to the ticking of the clock behind her. Her eyelids began to slowly cover her eyes, begging for sleep, but she refused. What if something happened? What if Draco had a nightmare? She had to be awake at all times to make sure nothing would fall apart at the seams even more.

The teapot in the kitchen was calling her name, offering a form of energy to keep her wishes intact. So she pushed herself off from the plush sofa and retreated into the kitchen to boil her unnumbered pot of water. It had been too many to count, after all.

Hermione sat at the kitchen table, forcing herself to read on the latest gossip in _Witch Weekly_ to avoid terrible thoughts to enter her mind again. But she kept her ears open for the whistling of the tea kettle and the ticking of the hands on the clock. But facts about which celebrity was rumored to be pregnant didn't justify her needs at that moment. What she truly needed at that moment was comfort and for the empty space she now felt to be filled again. And what had been worse for her, was to witness the pain Draco had to go through. She couldn't even imagine how he must have felt if the way she been hurting was terrible enough.

After finishing her cup of tea, Hermione fell straight to sleep on the kitchen table, with the magazine in hand, practically sticking to her forehead.

What had felt like only five minutes later Hermione heard a loud screeching sound directly next to her left ear. She shot right up, almost jumping out of her seat, with her eyes still heavy as a brick wall. And sitting there on the smaller-than-average kitchen table was a blurry brown puff.

"Copper? Is that you sweetheart?" she asked, realising it must have been Draco's owl delivering the morning post.

Before she reached out to the pile of letters on the table next to Copper's feet, she took a treat from one of the jars on the counter and fed it to him. The beautiful Eagle owl nibbled appreciatively on her fingers before flying out the window once more, most likely to hunt for breakfast.

In the stack of papers was the Daily Prophet that Hermione always looked forward to every morning but somehow that day she just didn't feel like bothering with it. Behind that there were a few letters that looked professional—obviously from Draco's work, a bank statement from Gringott's, and a monthly catalog for Wizarding clothing.

But what really stood out was the last letter. It was a personal piece of mail with Draco's name written on the front with what Hermione noticed to be a pencil. But what kind of witch or wizard used pencil or even had personal letters delivered by the post? Wouldn't they just have had their own owl send it off directly to the recipient's home? Unless if it was someone who didn't want to be traced…

And then, suddenly, her first thought entered her mind. _Alyson_. Who knows if it had anything to do with the girl's disappearance, but Hermione wouldn't take any chances considering the odd circumstances.

She ripped the seal on the letter off with force that cause it to almost rip.

_I have our daughter. But first let's play a game. Do you think you can find me before I decide to come after you?_

Hermione was completely shocked after reading those few sentences, she forgot to breath. But the second that the message registered in her mind, she went dashing up the stairs. That was the only reason she would ever have to wake up Draco from his much-needed sleep. But wasn't his daughter's safety and where-about needed even more at that time?

"Draco!" she said, trying to shake him. "Draco!"

"Hmm…" he growled, kind of pissed off that he had just been woken up after finally getting the chance to sleep, "…what?"

"Something just came by post that I think you might want to read… now." Hermione handed him the scrap of parchment that had been delivered, and he took it hesitantly, wondering if it was worth it.

And it definitely was by the look on his face and how his gray eyes had widened the second he began reading. It was in fact a shocking start to a letter.

"When did this come?" Draco demanded.

"Just now." She paused, scared to say too much at that moment.

"Candice," he whispered lightly, in a manner very befitting of the circumstances. It was the only word that came from his mouth, and Hermione's suspicions were confirmed. Of course, who else would it have been? But she had to hear it come from him.

"What should we do? We can't contact the muggles authorities. Our only hope would be the Aurors."

"I'm going to get Blaise and Pansy. Contact the ministry and say it's an emergency. There is always someone at Headquarters, so get them over here right away," Draco ordered, trying to get some slacks on in a hurry and flipping a robe over his shoulders. The second he fastened the last button, he was gone.

Hermione's mind was racing at a million miles a second, she had to take a deep breath before moving towards the fireplace. She opened up the Floo Network, and hoped for something before sticking her head into the green flames that would lead her to someone at the Ministry. But no one was in sight in the Auror's department.

"Hello?" she asked, but not loud enough for anyone nearby to hear, so she tried again. "Hello? Anyone there?"

There was movement in the far end of the office, where there was light spilling out from one of the personal offices. To her surprise, it was someone she hadn't seen in a long time. But she needed help, and he would give it.

"Hermione?" the tall man asked.

"Ron…" she begged. "I need your help. I know some Auror's have helped already with Alyson Malfoy's case, but something's happened. I need Aurors right away."

"But, I can't just leave. I'm the only one here," he replied, with actual sympathy ringing in his voice.

"Please. Just… please… send someone over. I'm sorry for anything you've ever hated me for, but a little girl's life is at stake. _My_ little girl's life is at stake… Please, Ron."

"Okay. I'll gather some of the best and send them over," he said, turning to walk back into his own office.

"Thank you," Hermione said before he moved more than two feet. And he stopped to look back at her.

"I never hated you, Hermione." And he was gone.

She took her head out of the fire, and brushed the soot from the ashes out her brown hair. Maybe once this was all over she would take a nice bath, and actually brush through her chocolate locks. It was beginning to look like it had back in her school days.

A few minutes later, Draco along with Blaise and Pansy right behind him, apparated into the living room, all with worried looks on their faces. It was one thing for Pansy to dislike someone for one reason, but when that person has pushed it over the edge, she shouldn't be messed with. And Hermione could tell from the steam about to burst from her ears.

It was an awkward moment for all of them, but standing there in the middle of Draco's house, embracing each other, was the least to say touching. It's the worse times in life that bring friends and enemies closer.

Just then there was a knock at the door. "It must be them," Hermione said, running towards the front of the house. She opened the door, and yet another surprise had woken up her senses. Without even thinking, she embraced the man in front of her, finally let some more tears out. But what surprised her even more, was that he held her in his arms, hugging her back.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry," the man with the jet-black hair said. "We'll find her, I promise."

---

Even though the two of them hadn't seen each other or spoken a single word in years, he had been there for her when she needed it the most. Harry Potter had admitted to her that he refused to let anyone else take care of the situation. He was to be put in charge of the case. So he had shown up alone. Alone to a house filled with ex-Slytherins and a girl he had once lost.

But surprisingly enough, no words of malice or punches had been thrown. And no, not even spells were shouted.

Even after Harry had left, Hermione still hadn't explained to her boyfriend the situation between two people who had once been attached at the hip. Draco hadn't asked, but he knew by the way her face had scrunched up when she walked up the stairs to fall asleep, that she wanted it to be left alone for the time being. And he trusted her, and wanted her to trust him.

And he let it go, because they all knew that Alyson going home was a more viable subject.


	13. Captured

Wow. So it's been since June since anything of mine here has been updated. That's…four months. I'd like to say I'm sorry, but I'm truly not. I needed that break to realize that I truly love doing this and find inspiration once again. Do not fret because this story and Unwritten Words **_will_** be finished because they are my babies. Just please don't start throwing pitch forks, tomatoes and whatever else you can find to chuck at me. I just hope I still have readers and a few reviews after my leave of absence…

**Chapter Thirteen  
Captured**

"Apparently, muggles completely misjudge us," Harry said with an uncharacteristic smirk on his face.

It had been quick, it had been easy, and it had been absolutely pain free. Well, at least for those who had a wand in hand and could easily use it. Harry and a few other Aurors had been able to trace where the letter had come from. After Hermione had gone upstairs that one night to finally get some rest—all of Draco's doing—Harry and the blond man had actually got to talking about how the process of finding her and Candice would go. Harry had left about an hour later, only to return straight to the Ministry to get working on the case.

At about three o'clock the next day—mind you that Draco and Hermione were still fast asleep from their lack of rest—they had received an urgent owl from Harry telling them to rush over to the Ministry as soon as they possibly could.

So there they were… the clash of brown and blonde, sitting side by side in the back office of the Aurors department in the Ministry of Magic, waiting for Harry to explain himself. The jet black-haired fellow was barely sitting on the top of his desk with his ankles and arms crossed.

"Magic can do practically anything if one puts their mind to it, and those who aren't familiar with our world, don't realise that."

"Is it safe to assume that you have found out where Candice and Alyson are?" Hermione asked with hope shinning in her eyes.

"Did you ever doubt the fact that I would find them?" Harry responded with an all-knowing smile, "but there's even more to it."

"So…" Draco began, "where's Aly?" He tried not to lose his temper. How could he? Draco and Harry had actually spoken civilly to each other beforehand and he didn't want to ruin anything between the two of them that would jeopardize his own relationship with Hermione.

"Trust me she's completely safe, but you can't exactly see her right now…" the savior of the world pointed out cautiously. Hermione decided to speak instead of letting Draco quickly lose his temper. At least Harry had done what he had promised to them.

"When _can_ we see her, Harry? These past five days have felt like five years to us."

"Even though cases like these aren't rare, unfortunately," Harry began to explain, "They seem to bring more despair to the child. And since their memory is very prone to change over time and by persuasion from adults, the questioning needs to be done immediately."

"All we need to know is if she's in safe hands," the sleepy brunette asked trying to contain a yawn.

"Ron is questioning her right now, just a few rooms down. I promise that both of you will be able to see Alyson as soon as the questioning is over. But first, I need to ask the two of you some questions, myself, but only if you agree. When presented in front of the Wizengamot, anything that's said here can be used." The other two nodded in agreement. "Who exactly is the lady we found with Alyson?"

Hermione and Draco looked at each, both worried for what would happen now that Candice had been found. Draco spoke up. Hermione knew that it was his business and he would share what he thought was necessary.

"Candice is Aly's biological mother, but the two of them have never spent any time together," he answered, voice faltering.

"So then Alyson would have never recognized her if they just ran into each other in street, right?"

"I don't have any photos of her and I've never talked to Aly about her. She's never asked and I've never told her. So no, she probably has no idea who she is." Draco was beginning to wonder if this was going to lead them somewhere he didn't want to end up.

"Do you have full custody rights over Alyson then?"

Draco let out a deep sigh. "Legally…no. How was I supposed to fight over custody when the mother is no where to be found? She left two weeks after Aly was born and I haven't heard from her since then, until a day ago. It's still technically kidnap, isn't it?"

"If we show the letter she sent to the Wizengamot and present the evidence that she never gave you prior notice, then we can win this."

"What about actually fighting for custody?" Hermione finally spoke up. "Is there anyway possible we can do that, using this past week as evidence against her?"

"We could," the man on the desk said, putting his quill away. "But it would take some time to get the papers filled out, approved, and read over by the Chief Warlock Assistant. Plus, you're going to need other witnesses to testify against her, and someone to represent your case. Since I already know the basic information, I could fill that position for you."

"Thank you, Potter," Draco reacted quickly, fighting the tears back into his eyes. "You'll never know how much I appreciate this. _We_ appreciate this."

"It's my job, Malfoy," the Auror retaliated. "Either way, I owed it to the both of you as a personal favor." When neither of the other two responded and confused facial expressions appeared on Draco's face, Harry continued. "The only reason Hermione and I haven't been in contact is because I've been a dimwitted fool. I acted like a child and refused to accept the world as it had been, or will be now. Refusing you, Draco, in Hermione's life was just the easy way out instead of realizing that life has surprises. Maybe it's time we all just let school grudges go, huh?"

Without a single word, Hermione leapt out of her chair and embraced Harry another time, more than she had done in six years worth of time.

"Now, if only I can also get a hug, you can see Alyson," Ron said behind them standing in the doorway.

Draco stood up while Hermione embraced him as well, just eager to see his baby girl.

"I think I'll pass, Weasley," the blonde replied.

**XXX**

"Daddy!" the little girl squealed when Draco opened the door. Alyson ran as quickly as possible with excitement all over her face, to jump into her father's arms. "I missed you!"

"I've missed you so much darling, more than you'll ever know." Draco's hold on the petite girl was indestructible because nothing would ever get in the way again. He just wanted reassurance that Alyson was okay, and his way of doing that was to hold on and make sure she wouldn't slowly disappear.

"Is Mya here, Daddy?" she asked sweetly, wondering where her new 'friend' was.

Hermione left the corner of the doorway, where she had waited for both daughter and father to reconnect first, and went straight into the room, waiting for her own hug. Once little Aly was put back feet first on the floor, she tugged on the ends of her father's wrinkled shirt.

In a hushed voice she said, "Daddy, that woman they took was a liar!"

"Why is that honey?" he asked, dropping down to his knees so he was eye level with his blonde-haired beauty.

"She said she was my mommy but she even won't let me keep Gumpfrey."


	14. Close to Normal

See? I have not failed you all. I have no idea how many more chapters I plan on spewing out of my mind, but it shouldn't be a whole lot more. Maybe about five, even less if I can put down my ideas on how this is going to end, nicely in enough chapters. Please, tell me what you all think of the story so far, any errors, suggestions, and flames are welcome as well. I just like feedback, even though I'm not putting so much effort into this story, but it's just something I can do to relax. Thanks again, everyone.

**Chapter Fourteen  
Close to Normal**

Three more weeks had gone by. Slow and torturous, but yet they still passed. Things were not back to normal, and they wouldn't be for awhile. Alyson had still not been told the truth about her mother. Hermione thought it was irresponsible on Draco's part to keep such viable information from an intelligent little girl. But Draco had his reasons. '_What smart and rich man wouldn't?_' he reasoned.

Even though Hermione had never moved in with Draco and Aly, she would occasionally stay the night, especially since things had been going terribly those days. On this particular night, it was almost midnight with Aly tucked away in bed dreaming of her usual unicorn and princess fairytales when in fact the world was nothing of that.

The infatuated couple was lying on Draco's big enough bed, just quietly chatting.

"I still think you should tell Aly the truth," Hermione spoke after thinking carefully in the silence.

"I've already told you, I don't want to tell her _the truth_… just yet. She's not ready to know that her real mother, the woman that brought her into this world wants nothing to do with her. She can't handle that."

Draco's face was softening, thinking of how tortured his little girl had been, while Hermione caressed his face gently.

"She's a smart girl, Draco. I've already told you that and practically everyone else who has come into contact with her. I promise you, she will figure it out eventually, if she hasn't already."

"Well, then what do you suggest I tell her, huh? 'Aly, I'm sorry to you this, but your mother happens to really be that mean old lady who captured you…Yeah… the one that hates Gumpfrey.' How in the world I'm going to break it to her?" Draco sighed a heavy load of breath out of his lungs, his hands reaching to rub his eyes. He was exhausted, tired, and worn out even though the exasperation of getting his daughter back was over.

"Draco, obviously, you can't say it like that. She's just a little girl. You have to take it calm and slow. It's going to be something she always remembers." Hermione was just as upset her boyfriend was, but it was a serious matter. And Hermione always knew how to deal with serious matters.

"Hermione…" he began slowly. "The self-centered and egomaniac side of me is begging for me not to do this… but could you help me?"

A grin appeared on the brunette's face, glad she could never be defeated.

"What the magic word?"

"Cheese?"

"Cheese? Where in the world did you come up with that? Try again."

"Thank you?"

"No… the other one."

"Please?"

"Okay, fine I'll help. But only because I love Alyson like my own daughter."

A smile now appeared on Draco's face. He was glad to know that for the most part, he won't have to go through parenting dilemmas on his own anymore. But Hermione suddenly had a serious look about her face. Draco's stomach tightened into a knot. Did something go wrong?

"What's wrong, love?" he asked, hoping she would talk to him.

"I need to talk to you. About something different, though…" The sparkle in her eyes died down a notch or two, and she sat up in the bed, twisting her body to face Draco's.

A million thoughts ran through the brain underneath the man's head of platinum hair. _She's not leaving me is she? She can't anyway, she already told me she loved me. Oh in the name of Merlin, she's not pregnant is she? Breath, Draco, breath…_

"I've made a decision to _not_ go back to Hogwarts this upcoming year to teach."

Now he was completely speechless and didn't even know what to think about her statement. How could she not go back to the one job she had always wanted?

"Why?" was all he could blurt out.

"Even though it was the job I was hoping to get for years, somehow it just doesn't matter now that I have you and Aly. And with so many things going on, I can't leave. This is too important to me."

"It's important to me too, love, trust me. But I can't let you give up your dream job for us. It's selfish."

"How can it be selfish, if I'm doing it out of my own free will?" She shook her head to get some thoughts out of mind, and sat straight up. "I'm going to stay no matter what you say, and I'm going to help Alyson get through these hard days, and I _will_ be there the day they sentence that horrible woman to life in prison."

Draco pulled her closer to him, holding on tight, silently thanking her for being brave when others around them couldn't. Especially himself.

They went to bed, hoping their nightmares would soon end. The upcoming morning they had to meet with Harry in the Auror's office in order to get things going for the upcoming trials against Candice. And they hoped with all their might, something amazing would come out of it.

Now the most difficult part came to Draco, helping his daughter out of hell. It was time to realize that his daughter was growing up. She may have still believed in fairy tales, but it was at this age she began to question their strength.

**XXX**

It was nearing close in nine in the morning, and Draco held a still sleeping Aly in his arms, with Hermione walking right next to him. Because of recent events, everyone found it wise to use special guards and wards around their homes, making it impossible to apparate into any of each other's home, like usual.

No more than five seconds after ringing the Zabini's door bell, did the door open with a Pansy full of hysterics standing in front of them.

"Hey Draco, Hermione, come in," she said, a bit out of breath holding the door open for them.

"Um… Pansy," Draco began, "why do you look like a disaster?"

"Better than the house looking like one," the raven haired woman replied, taking Alyson away from the man who was practically her brother-in-law. "Lately neither me nor Blaise have had the time to really tidy up after ourselves, and now I'm just getting some last minute cleaning before you three got here."

"Thanks again, Pansy," Hermione said, finally speaking. "Everything she needs is in the bag, and of course you know everything."

The blonde and brunette stepped outside of the house, putting themselves outside of the ward, and apparated away, landing in the entering station at the Ministry. After checking their wands in at the front desk, and passing inspection, they took the elevator, finally reaching Harry's office.

Seeing that the door was open and that Harry was immersed in whatever paperwork he was reading, Hermione lightly knocked on the thick glass door.

"Hey guys, come in," he said, finally noticing them there.

"So how is everything looking," the fretted brunette asked her friend.

The Auror set the papers he had been looking at aside, and pulled a folder from a filing cabinet setting on his desk. Harry still loved to do things the old fashioned way, no matter how used to magic he was.

"Pretty much everything is set and the Wizengamot has already set a date for your trial against Candice."

Draco and Hermione let out a sigh of relief. They had no idea that they would be able to get a trial so soon and sudden. But Harry had pulled a few strings and used his contacts within the higher levels of the court. He would do anything to get things back to normal with his friends.

"All I need to have you do, Malfoy, is sign a few of these papers, and I'll owl them straight to the ground floor offices." He handed the papers across the desk. "Your trial will be in a week and half, so we need to get everything together before then, since we have such a short time. We also need to have the Zabini's come in sometime today to sign their papers in order for them to state their side of everything as well. New procedures and all."

"But Harry," Hermione cut him off while he was dragging his sentence on. "Pansy and Blaise are watching Aly for us today, I don't know if they'll be able to come all the way out here."

"Well, since I can trust the both of you, I'll send these papers with you as long as they can be returned straight _to me_ by the end of the day."

"Thank you so much, Harry. This means so much to us." Hermione showed all of her appreciation through the smile she sent him.

"Oh, one more thing. Draco, the court wants to know if you'd be willing to also fight for custody."

The blonde's face suddenly went white. It was something he knew to expect out of all of it, but he didn't know what to do. If he went through it, Alyson technically wouldn't have a mother, and he knew he couldn't subject his daughter to that. But then again… more than likely Candice would be spending a lot of time in solitary confinement, and he wouldn't let his daughter visit someone in a place like that. Plus, wasn't he the parent that had done all of the raising so far, and changed her diapers and even been there when she had said her first words and taken her first steps?

He knew there was something he would have to do before he claimed Aly as his own.


	15. The Trials

**ATTN:** I promise you, that I tried so hard to refrain from doing what I did, but these characters seem to emit themselves from inside my mind. I don't want to change the rating of this story to an M because it's really not deserving of that. But if you're incredibly offensive to intense cursing and massively hurting profanities, then I suggest you not read this chapter. I know that most of you will proceed and read it anyway, but I did have to put up a warning.

Please, read and review.

I also have begun a sort of collect of DMHG drabbles and short one-shots. Please go and read the first one I have up, because I fell in love with it the instant I finished it. **_The Art of Losing a Pair of Pants._**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**The Trials**

The next ten days seemed to go by so fast for them as they prepared information and went over their case with Harry. Papers were signed, arguments had been fought, and small details had been skipped over only to be remembered by Hermione a few minutes later. Coffee and tea and butterbeer hadn't been enough to keep them awake from experiencing night frights. During those days, Draco had told Harry that he would not be able to fight for custody until he would be able to take Alyson to visit her mother in her holding cell. It definitely wasn't something that anyone, not even Hermione, had expected. But once the shock settled in, Hermione began to understand.

It was the day before the trial, and the small odd family of three was found waiting on the main floor of the Ministry waiting for Harry to take them where they needed to be. He was the only Auror with permission to see them to that specific cell, only because he was the one in charge of their case, and he was the only one other than the Minister who could even speak to her.

With a quick trip through the Floo Network, they arrived in front of the area where all the holding cells were. It was only reachable by floo, no other way. Hermione and Draco checked their wands in at the desk close to the entrance and signed in after being checked for any other magical devices and items. Harry then proceeded to do them same, except his wand was traded in for a set of bronze keys.

"I'll give you guys fifteen minutes," Harry began ushering them down the hall, unlocking doors in front of them and locking others behind. "If you're done before then, you can find me in the room just down the hall. Also if anything goes wrong, get to me _immediately_."

With a quick wave of his wand, a barrier that had been visible before was now clearly not there, leaving only frozen steel bars in sight. Without even so much as a click of his expensive heels on the cold concrete floor, Harry was gone.

After taking a quick look behind his two real loves, Draco whispered something into Hermione's ear and in a matter of a few seconds she disappeared into the same direction Harry had gone off into, taking Alyson with her.

In front of the normally smiling wizard was a sight no one deserved to see. There was a woman no more than twenty-five years old, sitting on the stone floor with nothing more than a mid-length skirt on and a normal t-shirt. He legs and back must have been freezing because she was a few shades paler than Draco had remembered her.

Eyes that were once a bright blue seemed dull and lifeless, but filled with rage and nothing more than anger. But they reflected someone who had lost everything. She just looked in a complete state of nothingness and as if there was nothing that could salvage her.

"I knew you'd come eventually." A voice emitted from the body that dared not to move, not even her lips. That voice, but that voice held so much anger.

"Listen to me you worthless piece of life." Draco was incredibly pissed. "I would not be here if it wasn't because of my daughter, so be grateful that the last sight you see of isn't with skin-tight ropes around your wrists."

Her face lifted up, forcing her eyes to look straight into Draco's leaving his body of any feeling he had.

"This is all your fault," she seethed, but her demeanor was still calm.

"You bitch!"

Draco grabbed tightly onto the bars in front of him, clearly ignored how cold they felt at an instant touch. Nothing else mattered except his final attempts to sever loose ties.

"Don't you dare try and turn this whole thing around on me! _You_ were the one who left and _you_ were the one who decided that nothing in life was good enough for you. So take your fucking pride and shove it!"

"You couldn't even notice a woman in distress. I had to leave. There was no way I could live any longer in a world that I held to the highest regards. It broke my heart and you never even noticed." Her eyes still sparkled from rage, but her voice still didn't match, neither did her face.

"Merlin, you never grew up! You had a daughter! A fucking daughter and you completely abandoned her. I raised her since day one, giving her all of my attention and giving my all to her. You couldn't even show her one ounce of love. The minute you turned away, she no longer became your daughter."

"Darling, how wrong you are. She's mine now."

"How?!" Draco could never take bullshit from her. "She'll never be yours and the whole court is going to prove that tomorrow! What was even the point of kidnapping her?"

"The point?" Candice rose from her position on the floor, walking slowly towards the outside, reaching Draco. "I wanted to prove it to you, Malfoy. I wanted to prove it to everyone that even a 'muggle' could take easily take something from you."

"You'll never take anything from me, you bitch! You're going to stay the hell away from my family. You know, they're going to lock you up away forever. And you know they're going to put you away in Azkaban? They're trialing you like a witch, like you've always wanted."

"Why are you here?" She didn't want to hear anything he had to say, no matter what it was. In her mind, she knew she had accomplished what she wanted, and that was enough for her.

"For you to tell my daughter, to her face, how sorry you are."

"Forget it. Fuck off, Malfoy."

"No, I finally _want _her to know the truth about you. About how you're never going to be her real mother and how you never were. You're going to apologize for abandoning her and tell her she never deserved it. Because if you had even once looked into her eyes the way Hermione and I have, you would know that she ought to have more."

All Candice did was sneer in response.

"I mean it, and if you don't, you're instantly going to receive the Kiss. I know someone with the authority to issue it, so don't think I'm kidding around."

"Whatever."

"I want you to mean it!" he screeched, almost attempting to reach through the bars and choke her till she stopped breathing.

"Fine…" she spat out after realizing Draco wouldn't give up.

He walked down the hallway, poked his head in through the door, and noticed that there hadn't been a silencing charm on the room. Hermione's hands, along with little girl hands on top, had been covering Alyson's ears hoping she wouldn't be able to pick up on anything. He gave a silent facial expression, indicating he didn't know and that he was apologizing.

"Alyson sweetie," Hermione said to the girl after letting go of her ears, "we're going to go out now, okay?"

The little blonde nodded silently to her.

"Baby, this lady here has something she wants to talk to you about," Draco told her, down on one knee so that he was closer to her eye level.

"I dun wanna to talk to that mean lady," she retaliated, hugging closer to Gumpfrey as well as turning her head away.

"And why not sweetie?" he asked back.

"'Cause she stole me from you." Tears were starting to form in her eyes, and Draco's heart broke just looking at her. "And she knew not too."

"How do you know that baby?"

"'Cause she's my mommy. Mommies are spose to be nicer."

"Rot in hell, Candice." Draco had enough.

**XXX**

It was almost two in the afternoon, the time for the trial, and Draco was waiting nervously outside of the court doors.

"Relax, Malfoy," Harry told him.

Everyone entered the room and presented themselves in front of the Wizengamot, not being surprised to see their old headmaster at the top of the tier.

"We welcome the case of Malfoy against Bale. Everyone please take your seats."

The man that had been seated next to Dumbledore rose out of his and proceeded to cite by heart the credo of their order.

"Mr. Malfoy," the man with the bright white beard spoke once again, "please state your case."

"Actually, I have Mr. Harry Potter here, to attend to my case personally, if that would be alright."

He nodded and Harry stood next to Draco, from where he had been seated as well.

"We're here to provide evidence and good reason to have Miss Candice here sentenced to imprisonment in Azkaban and to also be trialed as a witch." Everyone in the room noticed that Harry had obviously been in charge of cases before due to his posture and failure to sweat unlike Draco and Hermione.

"Under what grounds should Miss Candice Bale be charged as a witch?"

"She has always been aware of our magical community due to the fact that her sister had been born a witch. Miss Bale has grown up around folk like us, and has always been informed of how things are in our community. We also have proof that she has lived among other witches and wizards for the minimum of a year."

"Okay, we the court will review this case as a wizard against wizard under the requirements of Court Decree 52b. Please go on with your evidence."

For the next half an hour, information went left and right and back and forth throughout the court room, bringing witnesses when needed to confirm suspicions. Throughout the entire time, Draco's forehead had not been rid of sweat and Hermione never gave up her nervousness.

"I, Dumbledore, as head of the Wizengamot along with my fellow members had sentenced Candice Bale to life in Azkaban fortress, North Sea with no chance of a bail."

He tapped his wand on the corner of the semi-desk in front of him, making an echoing sound throughout the basement room, signifying the end of the case. The room erupted in either sighs or sounds of relief.

"Now," Dumbledore began again. "I also see here that you wish to file for full custody."


	16. A Good Change

**A/N: **Yes, it has been a very long time, and for that I apologize. Lately I've been working really hard at all my stories because I am tired of disappointing myself and everyone else. I really hated leaving this story just open like it was, so I decided to finish everything and quit leaving everyone hanging. I tried to basically sum everything up in one chapter. Hope its good enough!

Oh, and please do me a favor and stop by **Unwritten Words**, the sequel to **Dear Diary**. Thank you everybody for reading!

**Chapter Sixteen**

**A Good Change**

Hermione, Draco, Aly, and of course all their friends went to bed that night, glad that the day was finally over. No more witches, no more trials, and everything seemed to be perfect.

Feeling like the worst was finally over Draco stepped out of the shower completely refreshed. He dried himself off slowly, reveling in the feeling of comfort from the warm water and the soft fabric of the towel. After slipping on a pair of the most comfortable cotton boxers, he took a good look in the mirror and was glad to be honest with himself in knowing that the past would never be back to haunt him, ever again.

When Draco had stepped back into the bedroom, the first thing his eyes settled on was the perfect vision of beauty. Hermione laid on the right side of the bed, clad in only a silver silk robe, with her perfectly wet curls strewn on the pillow in a halo.

Lying down next to her, Draco caressed her face wondering how he could have been so lucky to have her back in his life. And having her still there by his side meant more to him than anything.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Hermione's eyes opened up, as if it were a strange statement.

"Thank you for what?" Even though she had a feeling of what he meant, she loved to see his faces when thoughts swam endlessly in his mind.

He didn't answer right away, thinking of how to give the right words. "For staying by my side. You never gave up on me, even when I was broken down when Aly was gone. Even after what happened with Candice, you never left."

Her smile was more than enough of a reply for him. But she still said, "I will never leave you again," before leaning up to kiss him with all her meaning behind it.

"I love you, Hermione. I truly mean that."

"I love _you_, Draco."

"Can you believe we actually won that case?" his facial features were packed full of happiness, but also surprise.

"Yes, I can. We had everything against her, there was no way she could have ever gotten away with any of it. Alyson is finally safe and you both never have to worry about it. She's all yours."

"Even though Candice is gone, I still feel like Aly needs a mother in her life. There are going to be things she'd rather want to talk to a woman about other than her insensible father."

"You are not insensible," she argued. "You are a great father and you have done a great job on that little one, so don't ever think otherwise. Plus, she adores Pansy, and I'm not planning on going anywhere."

Draco ran his fingers through her hair, but never taking them out of the halo they were in around Hermione's pillow. He could never say it enough, but he loved the woman in front of him more than anything, other than his baby girl.

But he soon realized that his baby, was growing up, and before he could blink she would finally be going to Hogwarts and need other people in her life.

"Hermione…" he said apprehensively.

"Hmm?"

He turned his body even more to lie on his side, and gently pushed his loved one closer to him so that their eyes connected. He never wanted them to tear apart because he loved those wonderful, all-knowing brown eyes.

"You know that I want you in my life forever."

"Yes, I know." She had no idea what he was getting at, but she never got tired of the sweet side he liked to show to her.

"I had lost you once before, and I practically let it happen, and for that I will never forgive myself. And now that I have a second chance I will do whatever it takes to keep you by my side."

She chuckled lightly. At what she didn't know, but she loved it when he talked so serious like that to her.

"I love that way you laugh and I even love the way you cry. I can't help but love the way you love everything and always see the best in everyone. You never once gave up on me, and now I plan to spend the rest of my life never giving up on you."

She giggled yet again and said, "Is this some kind of proposal?"

He even smiled. "What if it is?"

"Draco Malfoy, are you asking me to marry you?"

"I want you to." He turned over on the bed and reached into the top drawer of the stand by his bedside. He turned back around with a small black box. Sitting up to face her the best he could, he opened it to reveal a gorgeous ring embedded into it.

"Oh my gosh," she whispered, trying her hardest to sit up against the pillows.

"Hermione, I want you more than ever, and I hope you feel the same. I want to be your husband and you to be my wife. Will you marry me?"

"Is this for real?" She was so shocked, and it shown on her face. When he nodded, she burst out, "YES!"

She reached over and embraced him with all the warmth she had in herself, and felt them both radiating.

Draco took her tiny hand in his, and treating her like fragile porcelain, he slid the engagement ring on her left ring finger.

"This has been one hell of a day!" Hermione exclaimed, looking intently at the ring on her hand, barely believing what was happening.

"I think we just have one more thing to take care of…"

**XXX**

It was a warm day outside, nearing the end of August, and Draco along with Hermione and Alyson were enjoying the whether. The father had taken his two best girls out to the park for a picnic and to let Aly enjoy the playground with other children her age.

Almost three weeks had gone by since Draco had proposed to the love of his life and Hermione accepted. They had told all of their friends and Ginny had planned a surprise engagement party for the couple the following two days later. At the party, Draco had pulled Harry aside and asked for one last favor involving the Ministry.

And that was the main reason Draco brought them all to the park. Hermione had known of course, but only after the papers were complete. She was shocked, probably even more so than the proposal, but it was all in Draco's good nature to restore his life.

The two love birds were sitting on a large green checkered blanket in the shade, watching Alyson play in the distance. She was spinning around on the colorful merry-go-round with three other beautiful young girls.

Draco couldn't help but radiating from the inside when he heard laughter drifting his way that had come from his daughter. He still couldn't believe he had someone so amazing in his life, and he would do anything to keep his little girl happy and still laughing.

He felt Hermione's hand rest on top of his, and he looked over to her.

She had a look of worry, and he couldn't help but smile at how she always got nervous.

"It'll be fine, love," he said rubbing her hand soothingly.

"I'm just worried she won't want to do it."

"Well, I guess it's time to find out."

Aly was skipping towards them, he beautiful hair blowing behind her. She plopped down on the blanket, looking tired but ecstatic at the same time.

"Did you see me, Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetheart, you looked so happy!"

"I got dizzy, but it was fun."

The little girl threw a couple grapes in her mouth, and Draco was getting worried now, too, but he made the move.

"Sweetie, there's something Hermione and I need to talk to you about." He gave a gentle squeeze on Hermione's hand, and she squeezed her approval back.

"Okay, Daddy."

"We know it hasn't been very long since everything's happened, but Daddy has talked to Uncle Harry. Everything is set up, but all we need is for you to say you want it."

"You got me a present?"

"We sure did," Hermione replied, more anxious than ever.

"What is it?"

Draco took a deep breath before replying, "A new mommy."

"A mommy?" Alyson asked questionably.

"Yes, Hermione wants to be your new mommy, since I'm going to marry her, sweetie. I want us to be a happy family, and you need a real mother."

The little girl did nothing in reply other than just think it over in head, and then spread a huge smile on her face.

She stood up and gave her new mother a huge hug, with Gumpfrey of course in hand.

**THE END**


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